SUSTENANCE GRANTS RECOMMENDED

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 184, 3 May 1934, Page 7

SUSTENANCE GRANTS RECOMMENDED

Relief of Unemployment AUCKLAND COMMITTEE’S FINDINGS By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, May 2. After nearly five months’ consideration the committee set up by a conference of local bodies and others interested to investigate the unemployment problem has submitted a report. The report declares that the present system of relief is not satisfactory and dot in the best interests of the community, and it recommends that the unemployed, pending their reabsorption into industry, should be granted sustenance payment on the' scale laid down in the original Act of 1930, and throughout the whole period of their disemployment. Steps, should be taken to restore trade union conditions and constructive work should be carried out at standard rates of pay. As it seems impossible to find employment for all workers in land development, a place must be found for a great number of the unemployed in secondary industries. Full advantage should be taken of the most modern machinery in all industries, and the hours of labour should be adjusted in accordance with the amount of labour displaced by machinery. An economic land settlement policy should be inaugurated on the lines of village and group settlement, and new industries should be established to absorb the boys and girls leaving school. The committee declares that the first step towards recovery is to increase purchasing power, which can be done by finding useful and profitable work in primary and secondary industries, and it recommends an immediate economic survey to determine what are the possibilities of maintaining or improving the standard of living for the people of New Zealand apart from the exchange of produce overseas. To give immediate relief locally the committee recommended the issue of municipal credit notes to the amount of 25 per cent, of the ordinary expenditure of the municipal authorities. It strongly urges that Parliament should hold a special session or devote a greater part of the next session to the question of unemployment