NO NEWS ABOUT £2,000

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 542, 20 December 1928, Page 10

NO NEWS ABOUT £2,000

UNEMPLOYED WAITING SEVERAL DEPUTATIONS For several days a crowd of anything up to a hundred unemployed men have waited outside the Town Hall in the hopes that Sir Joseph Ward, the Prime Minister would remove the restrictions on his grant of £2,000 for unemployment relief, allowing the sum to be used before Christmas. The men are still waiting. This morning they enlisted the support of Adjutant Goffin of the Salvation Army, who waited on the Mayor, Mr. G. Baildon. The Mayor was unable to give any further information. He pointed out that he had sent two telegrams to the Prime Minister urging that the restrictions be removed, and that the grant be made outright as in Christchurch. Mr. Baildon said he thought Auckland had done more for unemployed than any other centre, and had bled its finances white. Wellington was in much the same position, and neither city was able at this stage to give another £ 2,000 to subsidise-, the Government grant, an obligation from which Christchurch had been relieved. “I do not see why the Prime Minister should have made flesh of one and fowl of the other,” remarked the adjutant. “Even if it were possible to subsidise the £2,000, there is still the difficulty about the Prime Minister insisting on the 14s a day rate.” remarked Mr. Baildon. “We cannot have 150 men on the rate of 12s and then put these other men on 145.” The Mayor further pointed out that the City Council recently had raised a £IO,OOO unemployment loan, and diverted £B,OOO from the Waiatarua Park funds for unemployment relief purposes, and this had exhausted its resources. For the past two years it had been scraping tpgether every penny it could to help the position, and it was impossible to find another £2,000. On the strength of the report of the grant the council had put another 50 men on Waiatarua Park improvements, but these could not be kept there very long. In reply to a question, the Mayor said that the £2,000 could be spent as from to-morrow if only the Prime Minister would give the necessary assistance. The expressed opinion of the deputation was that the Prime Minister had not helped the position- or the unemployed by announcing a grant and then hedging it round by restrictions that prevented it being used. Following the deputation the unemployed waited on Mr. Savage, M.P., and at their request he sent an urgent telegram to the Prime Minister again pointing out the position. The following telegram was sent to the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, this morning by Mr. M. J. Savage, M.P.: “I am advised by the Mayor of Auckland that it is not possible to make use of the grant by way of subsidies. In the meantime a large number of men are facing Christmas without a shilling. If the Government grarnt can be made unconditionally the City Council can ease the position at once.” Mr. Savage remarked to a Sun representative that he had been approached this morning by Major Gossin, of the Salvation Army, to see if anything could be done. Things here are desperate, he added.