SUSTENANCE CUT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 329, 16 September 1932, Page 5

SUSTENANCE CUT

(Press. Assn.-

WELLINGTON DEPUTATION TO MINISTER OF EMPLOYMENT

— By Telegraph — Copyrlght).

Wellington, Thursday. A request that the 50 per cent. cut in sustenance payments made to men j for whom no work is available should be immediately restored was made to j the Acting-Minister of Employment j Hon. Adam Hamilton, to-day, hy a i large deputation representing relief I workers in Wellington. The Minister stressed the desirability of the men being provided with work, instead of with mere sustenance, and said that he would ba prepared to take the matter up with the Unemployment Board and the Wellington City Council. In introducing the deputation, Mr. R. Semple, M.P., said that the re^ Mef workers in Wellington were deeply concerned as the result of the Unemployment Board's decision. The unemployed were already living in a state of semi-starvation, and the 50 per cent. reduction would mean that the men and their dependents would face veritable starvation. Other speakers asserted that the relief workers were being made the scapegoat between the Unemployment Board and the local bodies. It was estimated that 381 men in Wellington would be affected by the cut this weelt. The president of the Alliance of Labour, Mr. J. Cook, said that he would like to know why the cut was being tried in Wellington. The Minister: That is not the case. It has general application. The position is that they are finding work in most other parts of New Zealand. Minister's Reply In his reply the Minister said he did not pretend that all the unemployed were satisfied with the conditions nnder which they were working. The Government realised that the conditions were not of the best, but the country was passing through very difficult times. The Government and the board were endeavouring to give some relief. Personally he felt that they were being treated fairly well. They were finding between £4,000,000 and £5,000,000. A member of the . deputation : The trouble is that the country is not us'ing the money in the right way. Dealing with the 50 per cent. reduction the Minister said the Government's policy was that the men should work for the money they received. The Government was trying to help everybody to earn something, and many were. getting £2' a week. The Government and the local bodies put men to work. He would be quite prepared to discuss the matter with the board and the Wellington City Council in the light of tlie representations which the deputation had made.