RELIEF JOB

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 March 1940, Page 6

RELIEF JOB

CLOSED DOWN BY MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS SCATHING REFERENCES TO WORKING SPEED. FIFTY-SEVEN MEN DISMISSED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH. This Day. Descending on a No. 13 scheme relief job at the new Burwood Golf Course this morning, the Minister of Public Works (Mr Semple) closed it down on the spot and sent the 57 men employed there to their homes. Addressing the men, the Minister referred in scathing terms to the amount of work that was being done by the men concerned. Mr Semple was acting for the Minister of Labour (Mr Webb). Mr Semple said he had been in touch with Mr Webb by telephone and Mr Webb had approved his action in dismissing the men, assuring him of his view that the time had come for a “showdown,”

Mr Semple said: “Mr Webb requested me to have a look at this job and I have inspected it and looked up the records. I now want to tell you that this job will stop tonight. This country cannot carry the load it is carrying with the returns it is getting for the money spent. If men do not give an adequate return, they are impostors on the public purse and that is not going to continue. We give the highest relief pay and sustenance in the world and that is not more than we ought to if we get a fair go. We expect a fair spin when we take the lead and have we got it? We have not. We have not got it on this job and I suppose the same will be proved when an investigation is made of other jobs.” Mi- Semple said the cost per yard on the job was shocking and it was not hard work. He understood that stopwork meetings had been held and people had been threatened. Those responsible for that sort of thing would have any amount of time to hold job control meetings. Leaflets and poisonous matter had been distributed round this work.