STRICKEN FARMERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 May 1938, Page 7

STRICKEN FARMERS

ASSISTANCE FOR FLOOD SUFFERERS WEEKLY SUSTENANCE PAYMENTS INSPECTION OF FARMS PROCEEDING (By Telegraph —Press Association.) NAPIER, May 3. Assistance under the Labour Department's 4A scheme will be granted to farmers who have suffered loss as a result of the recent floods. This decision of the Minister of Labour, the Hon H. T. Armstrong, was received by Mr W. E. Barnard, M.P., on behalf of the executive of the relief committee. Under the scheme assistance will be granted by way of weekly sustenance payments to all those farmers who have lost all their income and who have no financial resources to meet living expenses. Payments will be at the following rates: Single men, 15s a week; married men, 255, married men with one child, 295; with two children, 335; with three children, 375; with four children, 41s; with five children, 455; with six children, 495; with seven or more children, 535.

Field officers of the Lands, Agriculture and State Advances Departments are conducting an immediate inspection of the damage and these officers will carry a supply of application forms with them. As, however, it will be some days before the whole district is covered, those farmers desiring immediate assistance should advise the district employment officer at once so that their cases can be investigated. The executive of the relief committee is assisting with the work. “The question of the supply of labour to farmers is also being investigated,” said Mi - Barnard, “and the Labour Department will provide assistance by way of subsidy under scheme 48. Normally under this scheme the subsidy represents 50 per cent, of the contract price, but the Minister of Labour states that in approved cases he is prepared to agree to up to the whole labour cost being met from the Employment Promotion Fund. In a good number of cases it will not be convenient to carry the work out by contract, and to meet the position arrangements will be made in such cases to have the work carried out on day labour under the supervision of the farmers themselves or by the employment of gangs of men under the control of the Public Works Department.

APPEAL FOR FUNDS NAPIER AND HASTINGS By Telegraph.—Press Association. NAPIER, May 3. An urgent appeal for funds to provide food and clothing for those people who are in financial difficulties as a result of the Hawke’s Bay floods is being made by the mayors of Napier and Hastings. Napier had taken the responsibility of the relief of distress in the area north of the Ngaruroro River, which included the Esk Valley, Petane, and the Tangoio Valley. This area suffered much worse than any other in the district, and many people lost everything. The responsibility for providing food, clothing, and bedding for those in immediate need living south of the Ngaruroro River had been undertaken by Hastings, and he hoped residents of the borough and district would make a generous and an early response to the appeal.