BONUS FOR PARENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 May 1920, Page 5

BONUS FOR PARENTS.

NATIONAL SCHEME PROPOSED. SUPPORTED BY THE STRATFORD BOROUGH COUNCIL. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Stratford, May 11. Resolutions in support of a State bonus for parents of large families, which had been passed at a recent meeting of the Dunedin City Council, were heartily endorsed by the Stratford Borough Council on Monday night. The Dunedin Council expressed the opinion that the special provision for the support of children of an employee, which was now granted to employees in the service of the ihinedin City Council, was not a matter that rightly devolved upon the employers of labor, but should be dealt with under a national scheme under the direction of the general Government, and that with a view to giving effect to that policy, and thereby affording some measure of relief against the excessive cost of living to the parents of large families, the Government be urged to consider a scheme providing for the payment of a bonus to the parents of all "children of British nationality residing within the Dominion. The letter Explained that during the early days of the war the Dunedin City Council granted to its married employees a special bonus based on the number of children of each employee, the honus being given in addition to all other cost of living bonuses granted by the Arbitration Court, being intended as a special provision to meet the needs of the men with families upon whom the burden of the increased cost of living fell with especial force. The council, while sanctioning this payment, nevertheless felt that the matter was rightly one that should be dealt with by the Government, in order that a national scheme might be formulated whereby adequate assistance would be rendered to all parents in the Dominion having large families to support. . The Mayor (Mr. .T. W. McMillan), in moving that the resolution be supported, stated that he had always been in favor, when increasing wages, of making a distinction between married and single men, and he thought the proposed scheme was entirely on the right lines. p The motion was :\eeonded by Lr. l. Jackson, and carried unanimously.