UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 July 1932, Page 2

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

GOVT. POLICY CRITICISED. [per press association.] AUCKLAND, July 28. “If the Government had shown as much ingenuity and enterprise in devising ways of solving the unemployed problem, by providing reproductive work at a living wage, as it had shown in devising ways of extracting money from the taxpayers, our problems would have been speedily solved,” said Mr. F. J. Kelliher, Managing Director of the Dominion Breweries, Ltd., at the annual meeting, to-day. “People were contributing the best part of £4,000,000 yearly towards unemployment, and that huge sum was being spent without definite plan, or policy. Heavy taxation, when revenue from it was unsoundly spent, became doubly heavy, and the position of unemployment must thereby be aggravated, instead of improved. It seemed fairly obvious that if the Government persisted in the present policy, any relief the people could look for must come from overseas, and fortunately the indications were much brighter than, they had been for some time. The British Conversion Loans’ success was a sure sign of returning confidence, and the drop in the Bank of England rate to 2 per cent., was an infallible indication of cheaper and more plentiful money, which meant better prices for our primary products.”