CO-OPERATIVE RELIEF

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 923, 17 March 1930, Page 1

CO-OPERATIVE RELIEF

CONTRACT SYSTEM OF WORK NOT BEGUN BY GOVERNMENT From Our Oicn Correspondent .. 41 GISBORNE, Today. Refuting the suggestion that the present Government was responsible tor the institution of the co-operative contract system in relief works Mr Williams. M.P., esc- Minister of Public Works, replies to statements recently made by the Hon. E. A. Ransom, Minister of Public Works. Mr. Hansom is reported to have said that if men leaned on their shovels it must have been under another Government. and that when he took office he had immediately asked the department to see that after men had been given an opportunity To learn their work and the use of their tools, they should he placed on co-operative contracts. Mr. Williams said the policy of the Coates Government from the inception of the relief works had been to place men on day wages in order to give them an opportunity to gain experience, later placing them on co-operative contracts. Mr. Ransom, therefore, could hardly claim credit for the inauguration of this system. In dealing with new relief workers, if a man paid on I results felt he required a slight respite, | it was the worker’s own business, and | there was no suggestion that men ha.d I leaned on their shovels when not en- | titled to do so. | The system was evolved, Mr. Wil- ! Hams added, at the very beginning of ! the relief works, and was carried out | during the whole of his term as MinI ister of Public Works. As a rule. | when new men asked for permission for an extension of time on wages, in order to become more accustomed to the work, the request was granted. He said that a reference to Hansard would show that most careful attention had been given to complaints and to make relief workers as comfortable as possible.

With reference to the system of employment, Mr. Williams said the policy was to keep regular and relief workers separate as much as possible and regular employment was found for the {permanent men by drafting them to new works on the completion of old jobs. Mr. Williams said he had done his best to carry out this policy, for many of these men looked to the department for this particular class of work as their means of livelihood.