Conditions on Relief Works Still Criticised

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 848, 17 December 1929, Page 1

Conditions on Relief Works Still Criticised

BECOMING WORSE MR. A. COOK’S STATEMENT Press Association WELLINGTON, Today. “On several occasions previously I have drawn attention to the wretched conditions under which the men on public works are suffering, but little or no notice has been taken by the head of the Public Works Department, and conditions are speedily becoming worse instead of improving,” said Mr. A. Cook, general secretary of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, in a statement yesterday. “Lack of organisation is responsible,” he continued, “and blame cannot be placed with the Public Works district officers and works engineers, as these gentlemen receive their instructions from Wellington, and have to carry them out. Hundreds of relief workers are dumped into their respective districts, and there is no accommodation, and no tools for them.” Mr. Cook proceeds to give specific instances of the “mismanagement, muddle, and semi-starvation which the men are compelled to suffer” at Te Anau, Ohakune, and Whangarei, and concludes as follows: “The indications point to hundreds of men not returning to relief works after Christmas, and none can blame them. I strongly advise all men to refuse work on Government relief works until such time as they shall be gua/anteed a fair wage and decent conditions.”