ABSORPTION OF UNEMPLOYED

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 91, 14 October 1931, Page 4

ABSORPTION OF UNEMPLOYED

TRANSFER TO PRODUCTIVE WORK

MORE MONEY WANTED

The Coalition Government's proposals for dealing with the ' iinemployment problem were outlined by the Minister-in-Charge of ',', Unemployment (the Right Hon. J. G. Coates) in a fcngthy statement read in the House of Representatives last night, and subsequently broadcast. Mr. Coates pointed to the Jarge dependence V for relief under present conditions upon the No. 5 unemployment .',,, scheme, and said that that position must be changed, as we could hot become a nation of navvies. With '■': the 'immediate object of ' putting 20,000 of the 36,000 men «o employed on to productive ■ works, he sketched an enlarged scheme of placing men in rural ' occupations, and also indicated other possible avenues of employjh*nt .' Mr. Coates said that the work of transferring men on to • productive works could only be done by raising additional funds, ~"knd that the Government was considering an increase in the charge 7' on Wages and salaries from 3d to 5d in the £.

'•,.' Commencing his address, Mr. Coates '•aid that unemployment was a social , malady which, if . allowed to. grow, .would sap the whole fibre of the people, 'Jtad its immediate cure was of vital to every individual in the '; Country. It was imperative that 'everyone in the Dominion should reajlise theiposition and the extent of the '-'responsibility of their doing their part.

As yet there was no tendency for the ;,50,000 adult male registered unemployed workers to . contract. Not "all of-- the 50,000 were wholly unemijployedj many were engaged in part/xime'relief work for sustenance. New '"Zealand had not resorted to the dole— • a decision which he considered was 'sound, and for which the previous. Gov/eminent was entitled.'..to credit. Of ''the men-placed, however, more than 36,000, were employed under the No. 5 /scheme, which was mainly road work '••with pick and shovel. The Unemployment Board was spending at the rate ,;pf £2,500,000 a year, and more than ' nine-tenths of. the money had been go- , Ing into the No. 5 scheme. Much of the road work was useful, but it could .■not be described as directly productive, 'and as time went on it became ever , "more difficult to find satisfactory road 'works.v. •■'■■■

: .-■.-■- The position as it is to-day, said Mr. Ooates, must be changed. We cannot afford to become a nation of navvies. In the interests of the country and of ,the men directly con- .'..' cerned, those who are now unemployed o"r are engaged on unproductive ■ relief work must, as far as practic- > able, be diverted into productive .','■ work. It is, to this task that we must V■ at once apply our energies. An -;■ immediate objective will be to move, ;: say,. 20,000 men from Scheme No. 5 ~.-' info productive work.