EMPLOYMENT

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 113, 6 February 1936, Page 8

EMPLOYMENT

The new Government’s proposals for dealing with unemployment follow in the main the course set by its predecessor. That is, the aim is a gradual transference of emphasis from unemployment to employment, from the doling out of relief to the stimulation of mdustiy, leading to a natural demand for permanent labour. So far. the “changed policy,” of which the Minister in. charge, Mr. Armstrong, speaks, does not reach far beyond administration, which is to be turned over to the Labour Department. The declared object is “to make the machinery capable of giving effect to organised natiopa'l development instead of merely coping with the evils arising out of the depression, a manner of statement which infers that the policy hitherto has been wholly stop-gap. That is not so. From the very beginning some attempt was made to fulfil the complete purpose of the Unemployment Act, which is to lever men back into the regular work of industry. At times the unhappy necessity of protecting women and children from starvation has put a brake upon the long-range activities of the Unemployment Board, but they have not been forgotten. (Lately, a? the strain upon the fund has eased, more and more has been done to draft labour into the regular channels of industry, although the late Government seemed curiously disinclined to take a bold step. Mr. Armstrong talks as though he intends to be bold; and spiced with wisdom >vill command the support of the country. bor ticmoment, however, his policy has been stated in general terms on.y. Most of his proposed ‘immediate steps” have been taken already. “Development works ... of a reproductive nature,” “expansion of land development,” “development of secondary industries”—these we have had; but we can do with .more of them, and on a bigger scale, always bearing in mind, as Mr. Semple told an audience .of public workers in Auckland on Tuesday, that mofiey does not grow on mulberry bushes, nor can the Minister of Finance create it with a wave of his hand. |