H.—35.

The net expenditure by the Board for the financial year 1934-35 in fostering gold mining and prospecting amongst unemployed amounted to £187,689. Of this sum, £3,169 was expended in subsidizing the wages of men taken on by companies and syndicates and employed full time. It should be pointed out here that the total payments under Scheme No. Bb—the scheme for subsidizing the wages of men taken on by gold-mining companies and syndicates—was £4,215. Of this outlay, however, £1,046 has been refunded by companies whose operations have been successful, making the net expenditure under this scheme only £3,169. FULL-TIME WORK AT STANDARD RATES OF PAY. The Board continues to subsidize the employment of men removed from the register of unemployed and placed in full-time employment at ruling or award rates of pay. This form of assistance, previously limited mainly to land-development and road-improvement work under the control of the Public Works Department and the Main Highways Board, and to gold-mining syndicates or companies under Scheme No. Bb, was later extended to certain secondary industries and to local employing authorities. Numbers of local bodies have already received, or are still receiving, a subsidy on the wages of registered and eligible unemployed placed in full-time employment on such new works as street and footpath improvement, water-supply schemes, and similar standard works. Nearly one-half of those in full-time subsidized employment during the year on schemes assisted by the Unemployment Board were engaged at standard or award rates of pay. According to the latest returns collected by the Board, there were at the 6th July, 1935, some 8,330 men in full-time subsidized employment. These were distributed amongst various schemes approximately as follows : —- Number Scheme 5 special arrangements (local bodies) : Urban works, 1,370; rural of Men. works, 630 .. .. .. .. .. .. 2,000 State Public Works.. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3,150 Farm contracts (subsidies to individual employers) .. .. 2,500 Building Subsidy Scheme No. 10 (balance of approved jobs not yet completed) 350 Gold prospecting and mining .. .. . . .. .. 200 Miscellaneous (including certain secondary industries) .. .. .. 130 Total .. .. .. .. ... .. 8,330 It should be noted that the numbers of men working in full-time subsidized industrial undertakings are recorded only where some definite arrangement exists for relating the subsidy to actual wages paid. There is no satisfactory method of recording the numbers absorbed by certain secondary industries which have been granted assistance by way of loans or grants, while the latest buildingsubsidy schemes are of such a nature that it is impossible to ascertain the number of men working on building-subsidy jobs at any particular date. SCHEME No. 5 : PART-TIME RELIEF EMPLOYMENT. For the past four years Scheme No. 5 has provided one of the main avenues for the extension of relief assistance to unemployed persons capable of performing the work available under this scheme. One of the main drawbacks to the scheme, however, is that it provides part-time employment only. — that is to say, the men are allotted a ration of work according to their conjugal classification. Furthermore, local bodies have been experiencing increasing difficulty in arranging sufficient suitable work for the absorption of all eligible unemployed, and this is particularly so in the cities and larger towns. This lack of suitable work has necessitated the introduction of sustenance in certain centres (see the next succeeding section of the report). Men placed under Scheme No. 5 are required to work their allotted time ration, for which they receive payment on the basis of 10s. 6d. per day. As from the Ist July, 1935, Scheme No. 5 workers, in addition to payment for time worked, received a special bonus of 2s. per week, plus an additional Is. per week for one adult dependant. This is a special allowance for which the performance of work is not required. Almost from the commencement of operations until quite recently the Board's funds have been scarcely adequate to meet the heavy demands arising from the large number of applicants seeking relief, and in order to keep its expenditure within the available income the Board found it expedient to reduce allocations slightly in the larger towns and to make more severe reductions in the smaller country towns where the circumstances of the applicants were not quite so acute. With the Fund now in a more stable condition and a general improvement in the unemployment position it has been possible to review the allocations and the general basis of relief. Under the amended system there are only four varying rates of allocations throughout the Dominion. Generally speaking, the highest scale (A) applies to the four main cities and adjoining boroughs ; the second scale (B) to the secondary cities and larger towns ; and the third scale (C) to the smaller towns and country areas. Quoting the highest scale first, that applicable to the four main centres, the weekly relief payable to the applicant where work is provided under Scheme sis 17s. This is supplemented in the case of a married man or a widower who is maintaining a home by 10s. in respect of one adult dependant, and by 4s. in respect of each of the first three dependent children, and by 2s. in respect of additional dependent children up to a total of seven, making the maximum weekly amount payable £2 7s. The family allowance, granted under another Act, provides 2s. for each child beginning with the third, but the Board does not reduce the amount of its relief in respect of the third child, as many families do not apply for the family allowance until the fourth child is born.

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