Liquidating Unemployment

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21117, 19 March 1934, Page 10

Liquidating Unemployment

In a statement to a deputation from the Municipal Association the deputy-chairman of the Unemployment Board. Mr J. S. Jessep, pointed j >iiit that when the demand for labour ' i.H-.uan to uiti'tiiM'. and it should be- ; -in in ini.Ti.'a.so before i! vv' >uJd no! be to contract ihe L-eopc of j unemployment relief in * propof*

! tionate degree. That difficulty arises I with any system of relief; but it is j much greater when, as in New Zea- ! land, the system of relief provides ! for work as well as sustenance. Carpenters and plumbers employed as relief workers on road construction : necessarily lose touch with their j proper occupations; and. if the ! period of unemployment is long i enough, their value as craftsmen be- ; gins to deteriorate. For those who i have been drafted into camps the i difficulty of returning to their previ- ; ous work will be even greater. A j discussion at the last meeting of the j Christchurch Unemployment Committee showed that the unemployI merit authorities, both local and i central, were alive to the need for j helping unemployed workers to keep ' in contact with potential employers. ■ But, as Mr Jessep points out. the ! task is one for the private citizen as well as for officials. Unless there is : a conscious and organised effort by ; the whole community to bring those ! now on relief works back into : normal employment, the liquidation ' of unemployment will lag sadly bei hind the revival in industrial ' activity.