£7,000 for Relief of Unemployment

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 115, 5 August 1927, Page 12

£7,000 for Relief of Unemployment

LOW WAGES JUSTIFIED WORK AT' NEW MUSEUM THE Mayor reported to the City Council last evening that he had in view £7,000 to be made available for unemployment relief work, on providing suitable approaches to and laying out of the surroundings of the War Memorial Museum in the Domain. The £7,000 would be made up as follows: War Memorial Committee, £2,500; Returned Soldiers’ Association, £1,000: Government subsidy, £3,500. He suggested that provision should be made that 30 per cent, of the men employed should be returned soldiers. He suggested that married men receive 12s a day and single 9s. Crs. G. Davis and O. Mcßrine voiced a protest against the payment of lower than standard wages. Cr. Allum: We don’t like paying low wages, but it is better to offer £3 12a a week than nothing. The Mayor said that the work was solely to help tide the men over unemployment. They were not professing to find work at the standard wage. It was to provide something to save men and their families from starving. Cr. S. I. Crookes said that the rates suggested would mean that seven men would be given assistance instead of six if better wages were given. Cr. A. J. En trican said the lower wage offered would assist to protect the city unemployed from a rush of country unemployed looking for the good wages. The Mayor indicated that as soon as he had completed formalities he would make a pronouncement.