RELIEF WORK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 July 1940, Page 4

RELIEF WORK

MANY MEN EMPLOYED BY LOCAL BODIES RESULTS IN SOME CASES UNSATISFACTORY. STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF LABOUR. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. An admission that some of the work done under Scheme 13 was not what it should have been and that the supervision by some local bodies had not commended itself to him was made by the Minister of Labour, Mr Webb, in the House of Representatives yesterday. He said the main purpose of the scheme was to place men in work. The amount of £2,500,000 for promotion of employment appeared in the Labour Department’s estimates and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Hamilton, asked for particulars of the expenditure. The Minister gave the figures for all classes of work. Men receiving full time wages and working for local bodies totalled 4500, and those on other schemes brought the total tc 8450. It was his endeavour to provide useful work but nobody seemed t< > want the men. Scheme 13 was not affecting farm labour. "Some local authorities have not cared a rap about how much work was done so long as the men stayed in the place and received wages, while others have been anxious to have the most done,” said Mr Webb. “On the whole, the local bodies have responded splendidly and have done their best to employ local ratepayers.”