Unemployment

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22032, 4 March 1937, Page 10

Unemployment

It would seem that the Labour party's latest remedy for unemployment is Coueism. " Un- " employment," declared Mr Clyde Carr in an address at Temuka reported in " The Press" yesterday, " is where it was before the slump; " in other words, there is at present practically "no unemployment in New Zealand at all." In support of this contention Mr Carr uses the familiar arguments that it is only recently that unemployment has been recognised as a problem, that many of those registered as unemployed are seasonal workers, and that boys leaving school have no difficulty in obtaining work. The Hon. H. T. Armstrong, whose views are similar to Mr Carr's, though he does not claim that there is no unemployment problem, h a§ raised the further point that unemployment registrations have increased since his Government came into office because the scale of relief payments is more generous and because the conditions governing eligibility for relief have been more generously, interpreted. Though there is substance in all these arguments, they do not prove that there is "practically no unemployment" or even that unemployment is back to the pre-depression level. Since there are no unemployment statistics of any value lor the, period before 1929, and since the pre-

sent system of unemployment statistics is seri-

ously incomplete, there is no possibility of arriving at unassailable conclusions. But at a time when there are 19,357 men in receipt of sustenance, 7058 in receipt of rationed relief work, and 2526 registered but not eligible for relief, Mr Carr will not find it easy to secure general acceptance for his views. The situation is not one which the Government or the community can afford to view with complacence. It cannot be denied that by comparison with countries like Great Britain and Australia New Zealand has a high level of unemployment and that the rate of reduction in the total number of unemployed has been disappointingly slow. According to a statement by the Department of Labour, which in this matter seems to be at variance with its own Minister, only those on rationed relief work and sustenance can be described as unemployed. At the end of 1934, the total under these two headings was about 35,000; at the end of 1936 it was still substantially higher than 30,000; and it is now 26,415. Considering the rapid improvement in general prosperity and the expansion in State activity which have taken place in this period, these figures are depressing. Moreover, if the experience of the last two or three years is any guide, the total will shortly begin to rise again with the decline in the amount of seasonal work available. It is difficult to accept the comfortable conclusion that 26,000 men dependent on State charity is for New Zealand, the end of the unemployment problem.