UNEMPLOYMENT

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 245, 17 July 1928, Page 3

UNEMPLOYMENT

“POSITION NOT AS BAD AS s MADE OUT TO BE” . ADDRESS BY MR. V. H. POTTER A wide range of topics was.traversed S by Mr. V. H. Potter, M.P. for Roskij), . in an address to the Ladies’ Auxiliary bf ’’ the Political Reform: League, last night. Mrs C. W. Earle presided over a good attendance. " ■' ■ Much political capital, said Mr. Potter, 3 was being made out of the National debt, particularly the fact that it. had increased enormously since the Coates Government held office. He confended, however, that the’, money which . had been borrowed by the' present Government had been spent wisely, and in the interests of the Dominion. All the money spent, with J the exception of the war debt, for which the Government cbuld not be blamed, had J gone towards furthering the-development 1 of the country. The opponents of the I Government had been asked to point to . a' single item of expenditure which was not in the interesis of . the Dominion; they had been unable, to do so, and had • remained silent. Money spent on the railways was money well spent. The farmers, upoil whom everybody depended, must have the facilities to place their produce on the market. - Certain railways had to be subsidised, but that did not mean to . say that the expenditure was - unwarranted; the country. was being opened up and developed, and it was in the interests of the Dominion to con- . tiiiue to assist those railways until they became revenue producing. Personally he was io favour of the ,Government borrowing another ten millions for the purposes of the State Advances Department. The Government borrowed, the money, but, after all, it was the individual who bad to meet the interest on the debt. He could not see where the Reform Government had wasted any money during the sixteen years it had been in office or how any of the expenditure epu’d have been avoided. Unemployment and Immigration. Touching upon the unemployment.qucstion, Mr. Potter deprecated the suggestion that the present position bad been brought about as the result of the immigration policy of the Government. One had to remember, he pointed out, tnat New Zealand lost 21.000 men in the Great War. The deficiency in the population had to be made up. From 1921 to 1928, 62,271 migrants arrived in Jxew Zealand —not a large number when one considered that had those 21,000 returned the population would have increased in the ordinary course of events. The present position in New Zealand was due to a world-wide depression and not to the immigration policy of the Reform Government. Great Britain was the largest consumer of New Zealand’s products, and when there was unemployment in the Old Country the Dominion was naturally affected. The farnler here got less money, hence the drift to the towns. Certainly a great many were out of work, but not half as many as some people would like them to think. There were a good many who did not want work. In his opinion those men should be put in gaol, and the money they earned there given to their wives. The Government had been cnti-. eised severely for not paying the standard rate of wages to those engaged on relief works. Everybody would admit that 12s. a day was not enough for a married man to live on, but if the Government paid the full rates the unemployed in Australia would flock to New Zealand in their thousands. There were too many Civil servants in New Zealand to-day. Many had been engaged casually in order to help them over a difficult period ; they could not expect to be ern--1 ployed permanently. No Government in the world could be expected to employ everybody. Unemployment would always exist, nq matter what Government

was iu power. A wave of depression had passed over New Zealand, but the position so far as unemployment was concerned, was not as bad as it had been made out to be. Helping the Worker. The -Government, continued Mr. Rotter, had been accused of many things. It had been accused of , not helping the worker, but in his opinion there was no country in the world where more satisfactory laws existed than iu New Zealand. He referred to what the Government had done to protect the secondary industries, remarking that if the people were loyal to themselves they would buy New Zealand-made goods whenever possible. The establishment of dental clinics bad done a lot for the future health of the children of the Dominion. A good deal remained to be done in that direction, but it was all a question of money. The hospitals and charitable aid boards all had a claim upon the national purse. The Samoan trouble was dealt with at length by the speaker, who declared that New Zealand was out to protect the native and not to exploit Uim. Proceeding, Mr. Potter said it was no use trying to live in a fool’s paradise. The productivity of the country could be increased enormously. He knew of no country in the British Empire where conditions were better than they were bi New Zealand; it had the least unemployment and the most satisfactory laws from the workers’ standpoint. * At the conclusion of his address Mr. Potter .was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.