UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22166, 20 July 1935, Page 17

UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM

CHANGES IN FIVE YEARS NEED FOR NEW INDUSTRIES NATIONAL PLANNING URGED "The problem of unemployment in Xew Zealand to-day differs widely from the problem as it was understood in 1929.'' said Mr. \Y. Bromley, deputychairman of the Unemployment Board, in an address to members of the Dannevirke Rotary Club to-day. "From an unemployment problem that was largely seasonal." he said, "the position has changed to a problem of chronic largescale unemployment." During the same period, and associated with the problem of unemployment. Mr. Bromley continued, Xew Zealand had emerged from a position as an exporter privileged to work on the easy assumption that England offered a bottomless market for her produce at profitable prices to a position where the export market was being restricted by quotas, and where export prices barely met production costs. Accentuating the effects of the sharp drop in export prices was the introduction of machinery to displace labour. "Legacies of Depressicn" There were many legacies of the depression in the form of industrial prohlems that had not as yet been realised by the man in the street. Mr. Bromley said. How many had realised that as a result of the recent improved activity in industry, overtime was being worked because skilled labour was not available, and that in spite of the large numbers of unemployed. That position was not p>erhaps at its worst as yet. A further point was that an award governing tradesmen provided that an employer might have only one apprentice to each journeyman employed. Under the same award a firm prior to the depression regularly employed 40 apprentices.

Another problem, not generally known, was that many unemployed, owing to their unemployment extending over a long period, had accumulated liabilities so great that when offered a job at standard wages it was not by any means an unmixed blessing. Many instances had been experienced of men asking to be excused from accepting a full-time job, explaining that, with the pressure for repayment of debts that came with regular employment, they would be worse off than they were on relief pay.

To plan for relief was not as simple as was sometimes believed. Mr. Bromley continued, but the time was opportune for a new orientation of the problem of unemployment. The legislation should be re-designed to place greater emphasis on employment and less on the relief side of unemployment. It must be designed for long-range planning. Greater Self-Sufficiency The only healthy recovery would he ; in the direction of greater self-snffi- J ciency brought about by the creation | of new secondary industries, improving the balance between primary and secon-: dary industries. But whose responsibility i was it to start, new industries ? It was j clear that the board had no legislative j authority to become an employer of j labour, if it was insisted that the State should accept the full responsibility for finding suitable standard employment the question of withdrawing all of the objections previously held against the State's incursion into industry would have to be considered. "Further," Mr. Bromley stated, "if we are convinced that for New Zealand the great need -is a development of industry policy, and because of the attendant risk from the point of view of the investor, nothing happens, I can see us reaching the position, and more quickly than you might think, where it will become a live question, not of whether the State should enter into industry, but of whether we, as citizens, can afford the luxury of keeping the State out of industry and leaving the field to private enterprise. . Board's Limitations "Without expansion of our secondary industries, we shall not reduce our unemployment figures below 30.000. At present the board for its success in getting men hack into employment is dependent on the captains of our industry, you men here to-day. If we are not succeeding, the failure is as much yours as it is ours. It is sometimes stated rather disparagingly, that the Unemployment Board exists only to take the blame for the Government. Would it riot be nearer the truth to say that the Government and the board are carrying the blame for the inevitable results of a system we all appear afraid to change? It is certain that before very long as a nation, and in common with other nations, we shall have to do some real planning for a better distribution of employment."

LOWER SCALE IN COUNTRY PROTEST FROM WHANGAREI [by telegraph —OWN correspondent] WHAJTGAKEI, Friday A resolution protesting against the policy of the Unemployment Board in paying a lower scale of wages to relief workers at Whangarei, Compared with the rates ruling in the larger towns, was passed at a meeting of protest held in the Town Hall last evening, under the auspices of the Unemployed Workers' Association. It was stated there was an average difference of 6s a week between the rates paid at Whangarei and at Auckland. USEFUL WORK URGED A TE AROHA RESOLUTION [from OCR OWN correspondent] TE AEOHA. Friday A resolution urging the Government to change its policy in reference to the emplovment ot relief workers, was carried at the monthlv meeting of the Te Aroha Chamber of Commerce this week. The question was introduced by the Mayor, Mr. R. Coulter, who said that throughout the country there were hundreds of dangerous bridges, level crossings and other vital works that demanded immediate attention. It was further decided to seek the co-operation of neighbouring local bodies to secure the diversion of relief labour into schemes for the permanent improvement of highways and bridges, and the elimination of level crossings.