Batch of Unemployed

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 393, 29 June 1928, Page 16

Batch of Unemployed

FIFTY ON ONGARUE ROAD MEN FROM AUCKLAND (From Our Own Correspondent) TAUMARUNUI, To-day. A batch of over 50 men arrived in Taumarunui from Auckland yesterday morning, and will be employed in relief work under the Public Works Department, on the Ongarue River right bank road section of the Taumarunui-Strat-ford Main Highway, which was commenced from the Taumarauni end last winter. The portion of the road to be dealt with is a very important one, and its completion will make unnecessary the use of a large number of railway levelcrossings between Taumaraunui and Ongarue. In some quarters strong exception is being taken to the importation of workless men from other centres, when numbers of workers in the district cannot find employment. It is alleged that men who inquired for employment on this particular piece of relief work were informed that only the Auckland men were being engaged for it. There is no confirmation of this statement, but undoubtedly a good deal of resentment exists at the introduction of outside labour. Many of the mill workers are hard put to it to keep their hands busy, and a Sun man was the other day informed of an instance where 12 men, most of them married with families, were dismissed from one mill. Where it is possible the local bodies are doing what they can to relieve the unemployment that exists. The Ohura County has undertaken certain road works with timber royalties, and the Government subsidy to cover the cost. In the Aukopae district on tho Wanganui River the Public Works Department has between 40 and 50 men employed widening the road to 18 feet.