WORKERS ON GALATEA

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 173, 15 March 1932, Page 5

WORKERS ON GALATEA

("Post" Special Cimmissioner.)

REbENT DiSMIS^ALS subject bP questibn iri HOuse PAYMENT OF TRANSPORT

WELLINGTON, last night. , The Minister qf Puhlic Works, the Rt'. Hqn. J..G, Cqates, was asked in the House of Representatives to-night by Mr. R. Semple (Labour,. Weilington East) if he wa? aware that a nqmbei* ,of men recently employed by the Public Works Department .on the Galatea Estate had4 been dismissed. "The wives apd famiiies of .these men," said Mr. Semple,. "are still -in Public Works cajnps in different parts qf the Nqrth Island.. Is it the intention of the Minister to transfer these men to other jobs or, are they to be left stranded in another part of the country?" Mr. Cqates replied that it had already been anhqnnceH. in the Hbuse thai it ha3 becqme neces'sary, owing tQ tiie amqunt qf Iqari mbney available iieXt financial year, iq make re--(ipctibns in the.nufiibers of meii employed. by.the Public Works Department throUgfiout ibe Domiiiion. Inv the case qf tbe Galatea Estate, tbe then had been in cehstant empibyiiient by ihe Departinehi for several years, and their services, were being dispensed with because they were nq longer required qn Galatea owing tq the prqgress made wiih the reading required in cennection with the settlement qf the estate, and alse because there were nq other works in the distriet qxi which they could be filaced, Mbfeqver, ih yiew of .ihe large numbers oi men now uhenipiqybd . throughout the Dominion, . the, Galated nieri c'biild not b3 Singled outfQr^prefqrqntia^treatment by giving •them constant emplbymeni.. "Wiih regard to the question of paying. , their, trafispbr.t .expengqs b'ack to where ifiey wer b forhiefly feniployed by the Depaptment on the Gisborne- W aikokopu railway," said, the .Minister,, "this is a concession , whiqh I ara afraid I, am not jiistified in b^tbfidihg lii ttiii CaSe." . , f ,