SUBSIDISED WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1932, Page 6

SUBSIDISED WORK

Any scheme for subsidising work is open to abuse, and,the building subsidy plan, as we pointed out when it was announced, is no exception. But the possibilities of abuse are not so great as a meeting of sub-contractors at Palmerston suggested. It will not be possible, if there is reasonable vigilance in granting the subsidy, for men to be dismissed, registered as unemployed, and re-engaged as eligible for the subsidy. The liJnemployment Board has power to withhold'any grant where it has reason to suspect such malpractice. Other abuses may also be guarded against by the local representatives of the Unemployment Board. It is surely not to be assumed that these will certify- without any investigation that a job should be subsidised. Are we not entitled to expect also that the building indus*HC 5»4U display, SMS 0; S me _asura of

honesty and such a recognition of the unemployment difficulty that it will discourage any attempt to defeat a plan designed to improve conditions? There is scarcely a proposal which can be made which it would pass the wit of man to circumvent; but in a country which has a high moral tone it is not unreasonable to look for industrial co-operation in remedial measures, rather than an immediate search for some weakness of which advantage may be taken. If the Unemployment Board were to wait till it perfected plans which were proof against abuse it would do nothing. There is a duty resting on local administrators particularly, and on the public generally, to help the board when it does attempt constructive "work. It is not enough to accuse the board of doing nothing and give it lio help when it attempts action.