UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Evening Star, Issue 20999, 13 January 1932, Page 12

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

A NATIONAL PROBLEM HOW TO ABSORB THE MEN [Pub United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, January 13. The mayor (Mr Hutchison) to-day made an appeal to all employers to endeavour to budget this year's expenditure so as to avoid reducing staffs. He said that; if-that was not possible at the existing rates of pay, they should retain their staffs by means_ of rationing or by a review of salaries. A general ‘ policy of cutting costs by reducing staffs would bring serious results. Mr Hutchison expressed the opinion that the sustenance granted ablebodied unemployed men by the hospital boards was tantamount to the dole, against which the Government had rightly set its face. Such a system should not he allowed to creep in, even in that modified form. Unemployment relief was a national problem, and the method of providing it should be by work. It was imperative that payment of relief by hospital boards, the continuance of wholesale employment under the No. 5 scheme, and the unregulated operations of social service organisations should be abolished. The Government should aim at the absorption of the men by land settlement schemes and by secondary industries.