SURPLUS LABOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 87, 9 October 1935, Page 6

SURPLUS LABOUR

PLANS TO ABSORB IT

SECONDARY INDUSTRIES

(By "Scutcher.")

While the total number of men on the. unemployed register does not mean that these are all idle, it must be admitted even by those optimistically inclined that there is a surplus of labour above the Dominion's needs, and though some of it will bp absorbed "by the Government's proposed programme of public works, land development, drainage, irrigation, and reclamation, it seems probable that for years, and certainly while the present world financial unrest continues, sufficient progress in these and similar ways of creating employment to absorb every sound male in the Dominion will remain unjustified, or financially out of reach. '

■' A disinclination to accept employment on public works is apparent from the statement made by Mr. W. Bromley, the deputy chairman of the Unemployment Board. This is said by a workers' representative to be chiefly on the grounds that 12s 6d for married men, besides splitting up the family, does not leave enough, when no payment is made for wet days, to allow the man, to keep himself in camp, and pay rent and keep his home going elsewhere. It would be only after a few months' trial that it "could be ascertained whether the married man would not be as well off under even the present sustenance payments as if he split up his home. Raising the sustenance rate, as pointed out by Mr. Bromley,: would make such men still less inclined to accept such work. A-'DIFFERENT. DEMAND. New Zealand is no longer a navvy's paradise. It is not very long since every able man was sure of work on some big development work or other. The late Sir Joseph Ward's scheme to borrow £70,000,000, had it-not synchronised i with the inception of thedepression, would not have been irreconcilable with the traditional New Zealand policy; it differed only in degree. The result of this policy over a long period was that, even before the depression, there were .far too many men in New Zealand who were not equipped to earn a living except by brawn and muscle. Today their, ranks are swelled by men qualified in trades and-inside occupations, and for the man above the early twenties, with the future of the country, already anticipated in; roads, railways, and tunnels, and harbours to spare, with borrowing effectively condemned as a political ■ slogan, there is little opportunity of earning a living with pick and shovel. The explanation of the fact, to which attention has been drawn by an indignant correspondent recently, that men were working in the rain on the Rolleston Street relief job,- proved to be that they .got full wages for working on wet days, and only 10s a day if they: reported and went home. This shows that where there is some incentive in the shape of a definite return available, men are willing enough to work; probably it is the uncertainty of definite return which renders public works so unpopular, as well as the.dislike of going into the country. Town jobs are always the most desired. There are many also, as Mr. Bromley said, who would be unable under the most favourable circumstances to earn standard wages on public works, though fit for some other form of lighter employment. Some of these must be fit for employment in secondary industries. Some of the younger and more adaptable of these men could be absorbed in expanded secondary industries with advantage, if there were such industries which could thrive sufficiently to produce a ponderable quantity of goods at export price as Australian industries seem to be able to do. Even in Australia the population is not large enough to absorb the total product of its secondary industries, which, would not therefore merit the State assistance they receive in various ways unless the goods were of»exportable, quality with a market for them. In New Zealand the population will be still;less able to use.the full" output of secondary industries if they expand;sufficiently to really affect the unemployment problem. FLAX WORTH WHILE. The assistance given.by the board to developmental works is in a way beyond criticism, but it would have been unwise to extend assistance to secondary iindustryai. general without the investigations carried o\*t by the board ii y'the/case: of those ultimately assisted. -*t may«tee; thatl industries which have fairly rapid cycles of prosperity and slackness; owing to world market fluctuations- would repay fostering,buV unemployment would be materially leducedronly by manufactures which have' their markets outside New Zealand, suph as the flax industry,, which before' the ,depression produced exports of £319,000 arid paid 5147,000 in wages. The expenditure on keeping; this Industry;' alive in a smaller way. mearis a\ husbanding of supplies, prevents the drainage of flax swamps, and. the ■eradication in certain districts of aplant which other countries are studiously fostering for its recognised value. If, as seems definitely certain sooner or later, machinery capable of separating the finer fibres without loss of strength is invented the. Unemployment Board may be generally congratulated on spending £58,000 to keep the flax industry afloat.-. The kauri, gum industry is another that-has been of great importance to New* Zealand, having contributed £23,000,000 in exports prior to 1923 It is open to doubt whether the supplies remaining in the north are of either the quality or the quantity of former days, though new methods and Ihe use of machine diggers in country that has only been scratched may ,prove more profitable than as at present thought. Like, the gum, the kauri is. not being, replaced, chiefly because it js such a slow growing tree, but there does seem to be an opening for re-affdre&tation with selected trees which would eventually provide exports, and employ considerably more men than it now does. As it is the Government could absorb more men as forest rangers to protect both scenic and economic forests. ■ . OPENINGS OVERLOOKED. Hitherto secondary industries appear to have been overlooked as a source of exports, perhaps because there was a tendency to tariff, load imported competing goods until they could not be sold in the country at-less than the New Zealand product, thereby creating a fictitious production, value which would entirely. prevent successful export. There has been no attempt, for instance, to bring. in creative artists abreast of the world's fashions and export a large portion'of the Dominion's wool, not in-textiles,' but in made-up costumes. New Zealand, following the hundred and one peculiarities of national costumes for men and women in the colder parts of Europe and Asia, could probably double the value of the

wool it exports. With assembling factories in other countries, it could enter upon mass production. o£ furniture parts here, and so give the world the advantage of some of the beautiful New Zealand timbers, which are all too often seen abroad only in caskets and inkstands.

While the avenues to extend secondary industries in a larger way are the more evident, there must be many smaller ones which could add to the country's exports, and even if these employed fewer.than 100 men, in'the aggregate they would assist the unemployment problem, provided they did not create a problem by over-produc-tion. The competitive production price is one difficulty, and overcoming the patriotism of other nationals another, but there is so much at stake that serious thought devoted to the encouragement of such exports is needed.