The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1930. IS THE GOVERNMENT DENUDING ITSELF OF RESPONSIBILITY ?

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11384, 9 December 1930, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1930. IS THE GOVERNMENT DENUDING ITSELF OF RESPONSIBILITY ?

Tile controversy between the Mayor of Nelson and the Minister for .Public Works ,as to the Government’s attitude in regard to unemployment, now that the Unemployment Board has been set up,', is both interesting and important. In the bluntest of terms, - Mr. Moffatt suggested that the Government had handed over the .responsibility for dealing with un-* employnrent to the Unemployment Board, and, further, that it bad paid off all men on State relief works, .in his own district at any rate. .The Hon. Air. Taverner, however, has stoutly refuted the contentions. Tt docs seem, however, that it will turn .out that all that was wrong with Mr. Moffatt’s statements was that they were premature! What will not have been forgotten is, tliat'prior to the establishment of the Unemployment Board, Ministers made no secret of the fact that the State relief works were costing the country more than it c>oilld afford, the) figure mentioned being in the vicinity of L1,250,000 per annum. The main object in imposing the unemployment levy was, unquestionably, to ease the burden on the 'Treasury in the matter of finding funds to keep relief works going, although it was also set forth that the moneys so raised, coupled with the promised State subsidy, would provide a fund from which sustenance payments could he made to. those registered male workers who could not be given employment. Mr. Taverner pointed out that Cabinet’s Employment Committee has not been disbanded. Such being the case, it is difficult to understand what is intended, unless it be that that committee will, quietly fade out of the picture altogether shortly. Meantime, the! aim of Cabinet’s Employment Committee will, seemingly, be to throw all the relief workers on to the hands of the Unemployment Board. In strict fact, a. start in that direction has already been made in the) case of single men, who aro now being dismissed from State relief works, if they have already been afforded some months' employment. Mr. Taverner suggests that other men who have liad a spell of unemployment—lie does not say whether they will be married men or single men, hut it is hardly likely to ho the latter—will bo given the vacancies so occasioned. What the Government has in view it has not troubled to conceal, for tho Minister explains that this step, in addition to distributing State relief among a larger- number of unemployed, “will release physically fit men who will be, available for agricultural work.” The single men who are ./engaged on, relief works as well os those who are remaining in the centres in the hope of work for them turning up there would, therefore, do; well to take note of the "“writing on the wall” in regard to this important matter. It has been claimed oil behalf of the Unemployment Board that it has been given an entirely free -hand, and if that should I'Jrove to he' the case, it will mean this:-that tho Cabinet Employment Committee (whilst it continues to exist) and the Unemployment Board will require to have a common policy, otherwise things will soon reach a sorry state of muddle. If idle single workers who happen to he ‘‘turned down” by the Unemployment Board could successfully appeal to the Government for work, an absurd position would, of course, arise. So far, the Unemployment Board lias not made any move in the direction of making sustenance payments, and tlnr general belief is that its aim will be to provide work instead Qf tho “dole”,. It must, however,, soon got right down to bedrock on this important matter, and it need not occasion any surprise (when it does) if single men find that they will bo expected to i look for work, no matter, how far distant from their homes. Tho so-called “dole” will, if wo are not greatly mistaken, prove very difficult, for single, men to secure—at any rate for any lengthy' period.