UNEMPLOYMENT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18947, 11 March 1927, Page 10

UNEMPLOYMENT.

MR COATES'S STATEMENT. LABOUR PARTY'S COMMENT. WAGES DECLARED INADEQUATE [THE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, March 10. The Labour Party, commenting in a statement to-day on the Government proposals regarding unemployment-, said : "Tli© pronouncement of the Prim© Minister on the question of unemplojment illustrates the bankruptcy of the Government as far as this absorbing problem is concerned. Mr Coates states that, responding to the dictates of humanity, they have done their utmost, and this utmost proposes to find employment some time within the next six weeks for 2000 men, at from 9s to 12s per day, and these rates are subject to their ability to earn the amount at prices fixed by the Department. A maximum of £3 12s per week during fine weather for a married man I Its absurdity and inadequacy is revealed if the cost of the worker.'s own keep (say £1 10s) is deducted from the £3 12s. Provided the weather is good, and there are no deductions from the pay, there will be £2 2s available with which to pay rent and provide food, clothes, and other essentials for the wife and children.

"Mr Coates sets out other proposals : "(1) Enquiry into the use of New Zealand coal. (The Labour Party has always protested against the policy of importing coal wiiilst hundreds of miners are unemployed.) '*(2) An arrangement for an investigation into the depression in the timber industry.

'■(3) The Forestry Department to employ, if necessary, 500 workers next month, when the planting season commences. (The timber enquiry is urgent, else we shall have the farcical situation of timber workers unemployed through there being no demand for timber being engaged _in planting trees to produce more timber.)

"(4) Restriction of immigration during the winter months of unskilled workers.

"To limit the ban on immigration to unskilled workers hardly touches the pioblem, Every unemployed skilled worker falls into the unskilled labour market when there is no work available in his own line. The Government should supply the information as to which are the winter months, and where is the employment for the skilled worker. What the public want to know is what steps have the Government taken to stop the arrival of immigrants during July, August, and September. Have they stopped the propaganda tours from the Emigration Department of the High Commissioner's Office? Is Sir James Parr telling the emigrants that they are going to a land of abundant promise? Are free passages still granted to single women' under forty yeans of age? Are free passages available for young men and young women up to nineteen years of age? These are some questions that should •be answered.

"The proposals of. the Government are totajly inadequate, and really constitute an attack on the living conditions of the .workers already here. Apologising for the inadequate payment fly suggesting that a wage exceeding 9s per day may induce men to remain indefinitely with the Government extends the insult to the workers already engagecj by nQtifying them that on completion pf their present job their Wftgeg also will be reduced. Mr Coates's proposals will not absorb the new arrivals. The number pf immigrants frpm January Ist. of this year to the pncj of the period in which it is proposal to make work available will exceed the number for \vhich it is proposed to find work. When the scheme is complete there will be more unemployed than there are to-day. "The prime cause of the present acute ynemployifient is the immigration policy pf the Government. They have induced, and are inducing, men and women te leave their homes in the Old Country to come to New Zealand. They arrive in shiploads every inonth. fhey have, no real conception of the country, or the conditions to which they are coming. The avenues Of employment to which they have been accustomed are not open, gome of them obtain employment comparatively quickly, others obtain employment by displacing those already here, and some suffer the agony and torture of an unavailing search for work in a strange land. In many cases they become despontlgpt and tragedy follows. "The falseness of the Government's policy pf impprting farm workers is iljugtyated by the faet that the type of labour which it is stated New Zealand requires is required in the Old Country also. This does not mean that a barrier should be placed around the coast of the Dominion. There is room in New Zealand for a much larger population, but we should do first things first. Given a land settlement policy that will enable those already here to take up land under conditions that will enable them to work the soil profitably, given gficiT ent organisation that will "ensure emplpyment for the skilled industrial workers on their arrival, given a satisfactory housing policy that will ensure houses being available for all; given these things there will bq room in New Zealand for a much larger popplation.

"The policy pursued by the Government in the past has created the problem, and its complexity grows faster than they are able to solve it. Unless new ideas and a new vision are brought to bear on the situation at once, the promise of the coming months is very sad indeed for many workers' homes. The least the Government can do under thp circumstances is to provide employment at wages that will secure the essentials of life for pveiry worker, his wife, and his children."

GOVERNMENT'S RELIEF SCHEME. DENOUNCED BY LOGAL MEETING The proposed rates of pay mentioned in tha Prime Minister's scheme to cope with the unemployment position in the Dominions minimum of 12s per flay for married men, and 9s for single—were referred to at a meeting of the unemployment yesterday, in Victoria Square, as "scandalous, unreasonable, absurd, and impossible." After a lengthy discussion the meeting, which was attended by about 200 men, unanimously resoJved.U "We, the unemployed of Chrjstchurch, state that we will not accept the wages of 12$ and 9s a day as offered by Mr Coates for the refief of the unemployed, as it means the reduction of the worker! 1 standard of living. *•