DEMAND FOR £l0,000

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 995, 11 June 1930, Page 11

DEMAND FOR £lo,ooo

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF IN AUCKLAND LOCAL BODIES’ PLEA Unanimously affirming the principle that unemployment relief should be a charge on the national exchequer, 40 delegates representing contributin-g local bodies of the Auckland Hospital Board’s district, passed a resolution last evening demanding that the Government should make a grant of £IO,OOO to the board for the relief of workless during this winter. HP HE conference was called oy the JL board as a result of the huge increase of outdoor relief, caused principally through alleviating distress among the workless, to induce the Government to acknowledge that unemployment relief was a national obligation. Seventeen local bodies, besides members of the Hospital Board, were represented at the conference, which demanded, as of right, that £IO.OOO should be granted to the board, “for the purpose of administering relief, pending the bringing down of legislation in the House dealing with the problem.” Interesting figures were quoted by tlie chairman, Mr. William A\ alluce, illustrating the growth of outdoor relief in the past 10 years. In 1920 the total expended on this work was £14,171; 1921, £14,022; 1922, £16.615; 1923, £17,351; 1924. £17,2 67: 1925, £18,484: 1926, £18.120; 1927. £-o.038: 3928. £28,815; 1929. £40,100; 1930, £42,100. Mr. Wallace commented upon the great increase from 1927, which was the first year in which unemployment was abnormal, onward. In 1927 and 192 S the board had received a grant of £1.90S from the Government. Although Mr. Coates had promised the board would be recouped for its outlay on relief of the workless, while the then Prime Minister was in England, Cabinet declined to ratify the arrangement, offering only 50 per cent. On his return, hoiw ever, Mr. Coates undertook to carry out his obligation, and one of the final actions of the Reform Party before going out of office was to pass the board’s claim for £ 10,000. which was paid when the United Government assumed office the following year. Since then the board had approached Sir Joseph Ward and applied for a grant of £IO,OOO toward unemployment relief, contending it was not a fair charge on the board’s ratepayers, and should be borne by the Consolidated Fund. Ho success had resulted from these efforts. £22,000 FOR WORKLESS RELIEF This year, said Mr. Wallace. the board had placed £43,000 on the estimates for outdoor relief, and of this sum it was anticipated between £22,000 and £23,000 would be spent on unemployment relief. Indicating the serious growth of unemployment throughout the Dominion, Mr. Wallace quoted figures showing that in 1928 workless breadwinners in New Zealand numbered 3,670, affecting 10.698 persons. In 1929 4.718 breadwinners were out of employment. and 14,522 persons were affected. After quoting the statistics of registered unemployed at the Labour Department, just released by the new Minister of Labour, Mr. Wallace agreed it was true a number of men were being employed on Government works, but he pointed out that others were beinp* dismissed elsewhere. Commenting upon the failure of the board’s efforts to induce successive Governments to change their attitude toward unemployment relief, Mr. Wallace added that the amount being expended by the board was by no means all; if the expenditure of all organisations in the district on alleviating distress of the workless was compiled the total would be little short of £IOO,OOO, he claimed.

Mr. Wallace said that but for unemployment the board would not have had to increase its levy. “It is not a party question; it is a question of getting down to ‘tin-tacks,’ ” he added. The board was prepared to do its job, but it was not prepared to see the ratepayers “paying the piper” all the time. The board considered the ratepayers should pay only for those people in distress and unemployable. He pointed out that many people, who had Government loans on their houses, were applying to the board to pay instalments of interest, but Fhis had been steadfastly refused. The Minister of Health had admitted he considered unemployment relief was a fair charge on the national exchequer. “What are we going to ask the Government to do for this' winter?” asked Mr. M. J. Savage, who contended this was the vital question of the moment. Commenting* upon the Government’s intention to legislate on the lines of the Unemployment Commission’s recommendations, he pointed out the winter would be over before anything done next session could come into operation. Having listened in Parliament to similar proposals for the past 10 years, he was a little sick of it. The board could not split straws as to who was an indigent person and one in distress through unemployment; it had to help all. He considered that unemployment relief was a national obligation, and that all local bodies should stand firm to this attitude. “PATIENCE OF UNEMPLOYED” Commenting that distress was now very acute, Mr. T. Bloodworth said that as the local bodies could not carry the burden, the Government should be asked to make a grant sufficient to meet unemployment relief this winter. He referred to the fact that the City Council had done its share by providing relief works in the past two years, with the result it had to face interest this year on the monev expended. The City rates had been advanced largely on account of the Hospital Board’s increased lew this year. “The thing that makes me marvel is the great patience of the unemployed themselves—many of whom had good positions as artisans and are now broken and disheartened by liabilities.” •Jt is like a canker eating into the whole of our social life,” said Mr. Y\\ K. Hewitt. “The infirmaries are bemg filled and people cannot even aftord to have babies’at home, and have to go to St. Helens, throwing nurses out of work.” He added that the population of the district was onefifth of the Dominion, yet it was supporting one-third of New Zealand’s unemployed. - Messrs. A. J. Entrican and W. H. Angle also supported the movement. After discussion on its form the lollowing resolution was carried unanimously:—“That this conference of i epresentatives of contributing local bodies of the Auckland Hospital Board affirms the principle that unemplovment relief should be a charge on the national exchequer. And the conference demands the Government makes a grant of £IO,OOO to the Auckland Hospital Board for the purpose of administering relief, pending legislation being brought down in the House dealing with the problem.”

Copies of the resolution are to h« forwarded to all M.P.’s and to the Mayor, Mr. Geo. Baildon. with the request he should submit the matter to the Prime Minister and other Ministers when in "Wellington.