UNEMPLOYMENT.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20790, 25 February 1933, Page 14

UNEMPLOYMENT.

j POINTS FROM BOARD'S I' ANNUAL REPORT. "With some 70,000 men ■ a charge on the unemployment fund at the timo of preparing this report, the problem of utilising available finance is an extremely difficult one," pays the aunual report of tlie Unemployment Hoard. "Despite increased taxation, the' pressure on the fund lias never relaxed sufficiently to allow a reserve to be built up." The total expenditure from the fund during last financial year was £2,254,257, the cash balance in tho fund at March 31, being £189,942. On the No. 5 scheme, £2,022,873 was spent, and on Mo. 4 scheme £115,104. The report reveals that more than half of the adult malo Maoris in the Dominion are looking to the unemployment fund for relief —a situation •which, in the opinion of the board, callc lor immediate attention. , The board states that its administration expenses have been kept at a vqry low figure—£37,347, or only 1.(36 per cent, of the total payments from tho fund This percentage is based on cash payments. Regarding assistance given to; goltf prospectors, the report evidence is already to hand that steady returns of gold are being made by unemployed prospectors in Otago, and that in 'some instances the "strikes" have been \>f a sensational nature.

Figures am quoted to show that unemployment in Now Zealand ha® not by any means attained the same relative magnitude as in some other coufl-t tries

It is stated that the board has endeavoured, where possible, to direct unemployment relief labour toward? the land. The board, is seised of the fact (says the report) that the pastoral land must lie maintained in such a condition that when price levels do take an upward trend, the Domihion'3 staple industries will ho in a position to take immediate advantage of tho improvement, and not be hindered in repair ins; ncj?lect due to deferred maintenance durinp: this lean period, An extended summary of the-report of the Unemployment Board appears or. page 4,