PLACING IDLE LABOUR

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 463, 3 July 1937, Page 3

PLACING IDLE LABOUR

LOCAL BODY HELP ,SOUGHT Hopes Of The Minister With, the object of converting idla labour into productive effort on a national scale, the acting-Minister of Labour, Hon. P. C. Webb, is seeking the co-operation of local bodies. To this end he will attend a conference of Wiairarapa local bodies to be held at Masterton. “There are thousand's of men out of work who are able and anxious to work, yet at preient- ther“ are no jobs for them,” stated the Minister In Wellington this week, “and the Government is asking the co-opera-tion of the local bodies of this Dominion to face up to the problem.” Mr Webb said there were such matters as river protection, swamp drainage, and destruction of noxious weeds that required attention. There were many thousands of acres, that were merely breeding grounds for almost very kind of noxious weed, land with the help of the local bodies and the land-owners much of it could be brought into production. The sanctuary for these weeds would also be destroyed.

The Government hoped, with the co-operation of the local bodies and the Public Works Department, to assist back-blocks settlers by providing them with better roads. It was not. in the interests: of the State that these backblocks settilers should be subjected to difficulties in getting access to markets with their produce because of bad weather.