MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE.

Shannon News, 23 March 1928, Page 3

MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE.

AN UNEMPLOYMENT SCHEME

The Municipal Conference held last week at Nelson —reported the Shannon Town Clerk (Mr. J. T. Bovis) at the Council meeting—dealt with several important questions amongst which were Unemployment and Main Highways. He considered that the firstmentioned was the most important problem before the conference, and a scheme submitted by the Mayor of Wellington was submitted to the executive as an urgent matter. His Worship promised to circulate his .scheme amongst local bodies for discussion. It is a scheme to which all manual male workers, employers, local bodies and the Government will contribute; the funds so contributed to be used in providing work for the unemployed. (1) The scheme-must be national. (2) Contributions must be compulsory. (3) Wage earners, employers, Local Bodies and the Government to contribute equal proportions, i.e. each one-fourth of the whole. (4) The work to be provided must necessarily be manual labour. (5) -The sum required should be sufficient to provide work for 10,000 men for six months in any year. To do this allowing an average wage (wet and dry) of £3 per week would require £780,000. (6) The dnnual wages bill in New Zealand is approximately £SO- - If one penny Insurance Fund was levied for every pound of wages paid the worker, the employer, the local body and the Government each ;paid this levy, an annual contribution of £833,333 would be received. (7) The' work for the unemployed should be provided by the Local Bodies, each Local Body receiving from the Fund' as its share the amount of the varioui-levies collected in its district including the Government contribution which would pay the cost of any unemployed works entered upon. (8) A schedule of unemployed works would require to be prepared by each Local Body beforehand and due preparations made, to meet any unemployment contingency that- may arise. (0) Unemployed work should be confined to the six months from May to November. No man would then get more than six months unemployed work in any one year. (10) Thp work where at all possible should be piece work so that payment should be according to work done. (11) No man should be given unemployed work unless he has been a subscriber to the unemployed Insurance Fund for a given time. (12) In good times when there is little or no unemployment, the funds should be allowed to accumulate. When a sufficiently large sum has so accumulated payments could be reduced or stopped for a time. (13) Wages paid should be less than standard so that men would not be encouraged to hang on to unemployed work.

The advantages of the local bodies carrying out the work are: —(1) Work would be available all over the country so that men would not need, to crowd into the Cities when unemployed as they now do. (2) Seeing that the wage is less than Standard a man should be given work close to his home. To send him away from his home means that half of his wage is spent on his own upkeep leaving only half for the wife and family. Local Bodies can in most cases provide work so that the man can stay at home. Economic reasons demand that work should be provided by Local Bodies and not by the Government, as Government jobs are for the most part away from the homes of workers. An Unemployed Insurance Fund woud relieve Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards. The whole, country would benefit from the work done by the unemployed. The levies proposed would not press unduly heavily either on the worker or the employer. A man earning £4 per week would be only 'called upon to pay 4d and the employer a like sum. The Local Bodies would benefit'by getting work done at a comparatively low rate.

It was pointed out at the conference that the scheme suggested did not apply to immediate conditions, and something, should be. done for the coming winter. It was resolved to ask the Government to increase the subsidy on unemployment relief work to 50 per cent of the whole cost of the work. THE MAIN HIGHWAYS.

The remit that }he Main Highways Board take over aiid be wholly responsible for the main arterial roads in; the Dominion with a view to coping with present and future traffic requirements did not receive support from the cities, who were not prepared to hand over the control of any of their main.streets to an outside body. The next day two- fresh resolutions were submitted and adopted: (1) “That in the opinion of this conference all contributions in respect of construe-lion and maintenance of streets, roads and bridges in which more than one Local Body has been or may be held to be interested in bv a Commission set .up under the Public Works Act, be met by the Main Highways Board,’’ (2). “That the iUain Highways Board shall pay the whole cost of reconstruction and maintenance of streets in boroughs having a population of less than 6000 which are Main Highways or continuation of Main Highways.’’

COUNCILLORS’ TERM OF OFFICE. A remit was carried that Councillors should hold office for four years, those longest in office retiring every two years. Under this arrangement at least half of a council would be in office at the time of election.