‘Suicidal erosion of Welfare State’

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34138, 27 April 1976, Page 24

‘Suicidal erosion of Welfare State’

Z. Press Association)

HAMILTON. New Zealand is hastening with suicidal speed towards an economy of the violent and the frightened, says Hamilton's retiring Director of Social Welfare (Mr C. E. Lewin ). “Increasing unemployment and removal of subsidies for necessities mean the climate is set for much more difference between the wealthy and the poor,” he said. Mr Lewin, who has been a public servant for 40 years and done social welfare worl. for 35 years, said he was concerned crime and violence would increase as people began to take what they need. New Zealand no longer led the world in social welfare or social justice, and many aspects of the Welfare State were being eroded and dismembered. When he began working in the Social Security Department at its inception in 1939 the network of social security, public works, and State housing pulled NewZealand out of the Depression. by giving many consumers an income so that they could consume, he said. “When I left school I had a conviction I was going from high school to a pen-

sion because there were no jobs. Benefits had much more stringent tests than today.” Social security was a way of redistributing the national wealth, and the subsidies on milk and bread helped the farmers as well as the I people. ■ “I believe we are hastening with suicidal speed towards an American economy — the violent and the frightened.

“I can't understand why milk and bread should cost more now. While our external trade may be suffering, our internal wealth has increased and it is now a question of distributing that wealth. “The policies of the present pig-headed Government are ‘trotter in the trough’ policies — everyone scrambling for what they can get.” Mr Lewin's solutions for New Zealand’s social problems include finding employment, especially for school leavers and the mid-work-ing-age group, making housing more readily available for young people, with subsidies and loans and lowering interest rates. “The only people getting benefit from high interest rates are the usurers,” he said. After 11 years of worrying about social problems as head of the Hamilton district office, he will spend his retirement on a 148-acre farm at Pirongia.