MORE EMPLOYMENT

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 32, 1 November 1932, Page 8

MORE EMPLOYMENT

Australian Outlook Better

CONFIDENCE IN BUSINESS Four weeks spent in Sydney have been sufficient to convince Mr. C. M. Ollivier, of Christchurch, that conditions in Australia are steadily improving. Unemployment, he found, is being considerably reduced. “The significant thing is that there is more confidence in business,” Mr. Ollivier told “The Dominion” yesterday, after his arrival in the Makura. “Trade is better and there are more opportunities for the absorption of men through channels other than relief work.” In New South Wales during the last

four months the total number of unemployed had been reduced from 200,000 to 170,000, said Mr. Ollivier. Of the number placed, only 6700 had been put on relief work, the balance being absorbed in industry and by private enterprise. An indication of the trend of prices was provided by the fact that the various basic wage rates throughout the Commonwealth were again to be reduced as from November 1. The new rate in Melbourne was to be £3/8/6, a reduction of 1/6, and in Sydney £3/15/-, a reduction of 1/-. “The basic wage in Australia,” added Mr. Ollivier, “is of interest to New Zealand, inasmuch as primary products there are inflated to the extent of 15 per cent, more than'in New Zealand by reason of the London exchange.”