UNEMPLOYED IN AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19934, 22 May 1930, Page 6

UNEMPLOYED IN AUSTRALIA.

GOVERNMENT RELIEF WORKS. TAXES ON WAGES. (mo* OUB CW* COEREarOKDEKT.) SYDNEY, May 15. The fact that the Now South Wales Government has already launched a huge scheme of unemployed relief works at award rates, although the wages tax for that purpose will not be levied until next month, is an answer to tho outcry in Labour circles, about the Ministry's "raid on wages." A Government might ordinarily welcome all the publicity it could got in connexion with such a scheme —a practical gesture of sympathy with those who have tramped in vain the city and also the country in search of any kind of work. Tho Bavin Government cannot, of course, prevent the newspapers from writing coiumns about thin big relief project, as a first-clais item of news, but its disposition ia not to paint the schcmo in too roseate colours for fear that the unemployed ui other parts of Australia will descend upon New South Wales in countless thousands and only accentuate a position with which it now hopes effectively to grapple. Already several thousand men haVo been put on the reclamation of swamp lands, and the levelling of Crown lands intended for ssale, and an additional 15,000 will bo placed on public works ia the metropolis so soon as arrangements can be made. Enquiries showed that 400 painters were out of work. Those men are being given work on three days a woek r#* painting the schools. The Victorian Government also proposes to impose a stamp tax on wages and a supertax on all incomes over £312, by which means it is hoped to raiso £BOO,OOO for unemployed relief. The scheme is not yet law, but is certain to become so, and quickly. The new revenue is expected to be ooming in within a month. Everyone agrees that something must bo dono for the unemployed, and there are over 30,000 of them in Melbourne alone. Hungry and destitute men sitting about under leafless trees in tho gardens, or—-revolt-ing sight—eagerly pawing about in garbage tins, cannot bo left actually to starve. Now that all hands are to pay, the welfare of unemployed becomes a matter of almost fraternal interest between wage-earners. A camp* at Broadmeadows military depot, 10 miles from the city, has been suggested, but its remoteness from possible jobs suggests a rest cure. Nearer accommodation is proposed is a splendid offer by Hoyts Theatres, Limited, of six disused suburban theatres, capable if containing 300 beds each. Use of the buildings is ottered to any sooial welfare organisation which will undertake the supply of beds, care of the buildings, and control of the occupants. The disused theatres scheme is likely to be further examined, and at oncc.