TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 303, 22 December 1932, Page 6

TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

THE URGENT PROBLEM,

(By PEO BONO PUBLICO.)

I haven't discussed the problem of the country people, particularly of late, mainly because there isn't really anything fresh to say. The position is static. No one is getting ahead, but, on the other hand, no one can be said to be any worse off, except for the occasional adjustments that circumstances have made necessary. One of my neighbours, for instance, lias had to give up the idea of holding on to his property, and he is just managing it for the mortgagee. But he knew last year that this would be the position.

We all know that the general position in the country districts will have to be clarified sooner or later, and to tell the truth we are trying not to think about the nature of the clarification process. Some of us have our own ideas on the subject, but most farmers, as far as I can tell, don't want to face things until they have to do so. In the meantime the position of the average country dweller is not actually unsatisfactory— apart from financial troubles and the disappearance of his equity. He has enough from farm and vegetable garden to live on, and he has simply cut out the extras and the luxuries.

The pressing immediate problem is concerned with the cities. What I mean is that even if we in the country are not able to see daylight, and even if there is no prospect of an improvement, we can carry on as we are doing. Close by there is a family living rent free in a small cottage. The father gets a little money from the unemployment fund and is able to buy what he urgently needs in the way of clothes and stores. We supply milk, butter and meat, and the cottage garden provides vegetables. Contrast this case with that of a city family, which has to pay rent and buy all its food out of what the father gets' from the unemployment fund. There is now no reason to suppose that the volume of distress in the country districts will increase. On the other hand, the volume of distress in the cities may increase even during the summer. . I mention this because there is evidently an opinion in some quarters that the rural problem is the urgent one. No one knows better than I do how urgent it is, but I think that in any measures that are adopted to improve the position of the farmer care must be taken to guard against the possibility of the city position becoming acutely worse. The question of wage rates does not really enter into the argument, and I think that some of the unions are showing a lamentable ignorance of the whole of the facts when _ they battle for high wage rates and not for high employment rates. The aim of everyone in these days ought to be to increase the- volume of employment. The more you increase the velocity of circulation the better use you : are making of any given quantity of money. If I were a Labour leader I would insist that every wage reduction should 1 >(v accompanied by an increase in the number of hands employed.. I should try to create a -public conscience on this question, because I believe it is really vital,

It looks to me as if this problem of city employment will be harder to solve next year, and long before the winter arrives the Government ought to be ready with its plans. In the meantime it ought to be seeking advice regarding possible ways of increasing employment in trade and industry, instead of concentrating its attention on the mere provision of monetary relief for those out of work.