The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1931. AN UNEMPLOYMENT POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 243, 14 October 1931, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1931. AN UNEMPLOYMENT POLICY.

For the cause that Tacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that vie r%n ds.

The statement that Mr. Coates, as Minister in Charge of Unemployment, made to the House last night, is a policy. It is reasonable and comprehensive; it surveys the whole field, or most of it; and it is an honest and earnest attempt to get away from the makeshift, measures that were inevitable at first, but have been continued too long. It elaborates the declared intention of the Unemployment Board to concentrate upon productive work, and it offers an actual constructive programme. The position that the Government has to face is that there are fifty thousand adult unemployed registered in New Zealand, not counting the, many women and boys who are also without work. Mr. Coates begins his consideration of the problem presented by this army by saying that the Government has not resorted to the so-called "dole" or relief without work. This is true only in a narrow sense, for if charitable aid is not a "dole," what is it? It is much wiser to admit that the "dole" exists, and that whatever relief work measures are framed there will always be men and women who must be helped in this way if they are not to be allowed to starve. Mr. Coates admits the difficulties of finding work for these 50,000 men. As he rightly says, production should be the goal, but since nearly a century of development has produced only 80,000 farmers, one cannot expect that 50,000 men to be placed on the land now. There are signs in Mr. Coates' statement, however, that within practical limits the Board and the Government mean to aet vigorously. An immediate objective is to transfer twenty thousand men from Scheme No. 5 to productive works. Farmers will be helped to employ labour on work that is entirely or only partly developmental. This will enable farmers to carry on existing production tbat has been restricted for lack of labour, and to bring fresh land into profit. At last the State is to try the experiment that has been pressed upon . it for so long—the opening up of Crown land. Blocks have been allocated and camps started. Once again we may express the hope that in running these camps the experience of the military and of the Public Works Department will be used to the full. In referring to establishment of small farm holdings for unemployed Mr. Coates says: "We have the land and we have the cottages or hutments of the type used in Public Works camps, and we have the men anxious to get on the land. Can we hot bring these together?" Not to bring them together would be a failure that should not be condoned. And when Mr. Coates visualises "families grouped together round a centre," who "might develop into a prosperous self-reliant community, with a social life and amenities of their own," he is accepting as possible the dream of those who for years past have been urging the Government to go in for group settlement. For the rest, we have space to note only the possibility that additional special taxation for relief purposes may. be necessary, and Mr. Coates' warning that the country have to depend less for its prosperity on loan money for developmental purposes. u I