UNEMPLOYMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 163, 12 July 1928, Page 11

UNEMPLOYMENT.

A SUGGESTED REMEDY. REFORM'S FALSE PROMISES. FACTS BELIE ELECTION FICTION. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON. Wednesday. Suggesting a national, compulsory and contributory scheme of unemployment insurance as the remedy for unemployment, Mr. A. Harris (Waitemata) claimed in the House to-day that lie had put forward something constructive in the midst of much talk in which no solution was offered. After considering the scheme in operation in Great Britain, he was convinced that the solution of New Zealand's difficulties lay along similar lines.

We had reached a stage in New Zealand when unemployment was a permanent feature. In some years it would be worse than in others, but still permanent. Last year the Government iiad spent £500.000 in the relief of unemployment, and considerably more was to be spent this year, yet in spite of that great expenditure the country seemed no nearer the solution of the problem. No one had found a solution to the root cause, nor did the root cause matter as much as a solution or the effects. What could not be done by the individual, could, Mr. Harris thought, be done by combination. Tlfe reasoning which prompted a man to insure his property against loss by fire, or to make provision for sick benefits for his tamily, should prompt him to make provision against unemployment..

Mr. Rhodes (Thames): Are the employers against it? Mr. Harris. I don't think they are, and I know many of them are in favour of it.

Mr. Rhodes: Some of them are against it.

Mr. Harris: I don't think they are. However, please don't interrupt, I've got a lot to aay. (Laughter.) It,would engender a better feeling between the workers and capital if there were a scheme of this kind. The workers, employers and the Government would all contribute. "Dole" a Misnomer. After reviewing the details of the British scheme, which had been investigated by economists and pronounced satisfactory, with a few minor suggestions for improvement, Mr. Harris said a similar scheme in New Zealand would be a scientific solution. It was unfortunate that the term "dole" should have been used to describe the British scheme. It was not a dole, since the worker paid a premium to safeguard himself against distress consequent upon unemployment. The scheme, Mr. Harris thought, would not cost much more than half of the amount spent last year in the relief of unemployment, at least as far as the State was concerned. The Government was the only organisation that could prosecute the necessary investigations in the direction of establishing such a scheme. Unemployment had been talked about a great deal, and the Government had been blamed, unfairly he thought, for the present distress. "T believe I have offered an idea which may be the germ of a solution," said Mr. Harris. "It would make impossible recurrence of the painful and pitiful cases of hardship which have been known in this country only lately." "This is Election Year." "Many of us have listened with astonishment to the tone of the speech just delivered," began Mr. 11. G. R. Mason (Eden), the next speaker. "In the past two sessions, the same member has criticiscd the Government very severely. I do not know whether it is because we shall soon be facing the electors, but it is astonishing to find him defending the Government right through the piece. Mr. Savage: This is election year. Mr. Mason said it had been asserted that unemployment would be a permanent thing in New Zealand, out lie ventured to assert that it would be permanent only so long as the Reform Government was in office. Mr. V. H. Fotter (Roskill): Get another Government in, and the uncm ployed will die. Reform Still Cheerful. Producing the Labour Opposition's "props," which consist of huge placards and advertisements, saved from the 1925 general election, and mounted on cardboard folders, Mr. Mason held up some large pictures of Mr. Coates, surrounded oy the Union Jack. He quoted freely from the high-sounding letterpress of the Reform advertisements. "New Zealand to-day is on the eve of great events." "The prosperity of its people is unequalled." Unemployment is at a minimum." "The conditions of life were never brighter." Chorus of "Hear, hear" from Reform benches.

Mr. V. H. Potter (Roskill): So it is. Mr. P. Fiaser: Then Gold help other countries.

Does it say anything there about the All Blacks?" asked Mr. Potter, as the Labour member continued to*quote from the 'placards.

Mr. Mason said that, following on this rosy picture of never-brighter prosperity, Auckland and other centres now knew conditions of poverty, the result of unemployment, such as had not been known by anyone living. In face of this, it was astonishing, to say the least of it, to find the cheerful and irresponsible interjections which came from Reform members. They seemed to be proud of Reform's record. Reformers (heartily): Hear, hear. Mr. Mason said a reasonable land policy would mean that very little unemployment would be known. Unhappily, ..Reform's land policy was entirely negative.