ACTIVITIES DEFENDED

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 121, 25 May 1931, Page 10

ACTIVITIES DEFENDED

MINISTER AND THE CRITICS

■ ' (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day. A defence of the activities of the Unemployment Board was made by the Hon. S. G. Smith (Minister of Labour), when speaking at Papatoetoe in support of Mr. E. Allan, the United Party candidate in the Hauraki by-election campaign. The Minister said that the greatest criticism of the Unemployment Board had come from a small band of highly-paid trades union officials in Wellington. He had been told that one official received a salary higher than that of *he Prime Minter. Mr. Smith said that the reason for this agitation and opposition was that he had refused to allow the officials mentioned to run the show and appoint their own men as representatives on the board. It had been stated that large numbers were evading payment of the unemployment levy. The facts were that 4C5.U00 males were registered under the Act, and in December, 1030, 398,500 had paid the levy then due. From the number registered must be deducted soldiers on full pensions, old age pensioners, prisoners, and others exempt from the levy. "We know almost to a man who has shirked ;s responsibility, and we shall rope all ■■ defaulters in," declared the Minister. .leplyiug to criticism that much of the work given to the unemployed was useless, the Minister pointed out that the responsibility for the class of work was with the local bodies and not with the Unemployment Board, which merely paid the wages. SUFFERING FARMERS. "The Leader of the Labour Party, Mr. Holland, has suggested that standard rates could be paid on relief works by increasing land and income tax," continued Mr. Smith, "but the Labour Party apparently does not know that there are to-day among the registered, unemployed hundreds of men who last year paid income tax. Farmers are receiving no income on which to pay tax, and some of the business men are not receiving enough to make them eligible. Consequently the additional money that Mr. Holland wants would have to come from the land. Furthermore, no one knows what assessable incomes will be for this or next year. All are down, and the opportunity of collecting additional taxation from assessable incomes this year is not as great as it has been.for many years-past. UNEMPLOYED WOMEN. "The saddest part of the unemployment problem is the unemployment of women," added the Minister. "There are scores of young women who, for the first time, find themselves unable to get-work. In Auckland city alone two-thirds of the women in the clothing trade are either unemployed or working short time. Many of them have no homes to go to, no friends, and no money. Wfi cannot have young women sleeping out, and one of the big things to do is to devise some scheme that will meet the position. I hope in a few days to be able to make a statement covering the efforts of the board to meet the problem of the unemployed women of New Zealand."