Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY’, June 12, 1935. THE RESULT OF THE DOLE.

Grey River Argus, 12 June 1935, Page 4

Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY’, June 12, 1935. THE RESULT OF THE DOLE.

Quite a rosy picture, romantic and sentimental, was that painted of the West Coast unemployed lately by the Minister of Employment. He may be right in saying that men have made the best of the subsidy on account of the chance that they may win something better than that. Hut this very point only draws attention to the position of other unemployed, the vast majority, those (.specially in the larger towns, whose outlook remains that of the dole and the dole only. There are live thousand of these in Wellington alone, probably more in Auckland, and not so nianv fewer around Christchurch. From three to four years of a dole existence has demolished what small reserve any of these may have had for “the rainy day.’’ The wells of charity are now running dry, and relief organisations are inclined to relax. Few bargained for the permanence of the calls to support fifty thousand and their more numerous dependents year by year. If more had. it is certain that the Government would have encountered far greater opposition than they did when they decided to substitute the dole for regular work and ordinary pay in every direction that they were able to do so. What do we find to-day to be the view of public opinion regarding the dole? It is universally discredited. and nowhere more definitely than in the very centres where wealthy interests first welcomed it. At Auckland this sentiment has played a part in placing th e municipal administration under a new control. Labour has been elected to adminster the city not merely because it will be considerate of the workless, but hostile to the principle of the dole. The aim now will be at Auckland to replace the dole as far as it is possible on the part of the municipality with the regular pay and work which over three years ago were deliberately sacrificed so as to stabilise a state of pauperism in the. Dominion. A voluntary movement in Wellington is directed to make up soni" of the lack in the Government provision for the workless. Next there is the demand from Christ church that more generous treatment shall be accorded to the unemployed. Hitherto, under the I leadership there of a Mayor who placed tin's matter ever in the forefront, a large degree of assistance has been voluntarily provided. but after all it has left the problem just where it was at the outset, because there are not the reserves left at local disposal to effect anything like a solution. The vast bulk of the taxation for relief is under State control, ami th c idea seems to be that the unemployed must be taught to remain on the breadline, and that the-expenditure on the poor must be kept at a minimum. Yesterday’s conference at Christchurch on unemployment only re-echoed the demand previously made at Auckland that, instead of the dole, there should be a return to full time work and standard pay with a resumption of public Works. Major schemes that will absorb large numbers of men are confidently advocated as being good national economy, and local bodies ar e being pledged to this proposition. The -winter months are considered to justify a 20

per cent, increase in relief rates, and also, if necessary, the increase of the unemployment tax to one shilling in the pound, where it formerly stood. It is thus evident that the existing system is not moving one degree nearer a solution of the real problenZ The increase of the tax would not be seriously urged unless there were an unquestionable lack in tin- measure of relief. The Government has a duty to seek i definite reduction of unemployment, but it has never attempted to do more than tinker with that aspect of the matter. Prospecting subsidies are no solution, bin only a cheap panacea. The subsistence allowances are ■in the same category, and it is obvious that the S;at e must go back to the principle of providing useful work ami reasonable wages tor tens of thousands who have been left for years without the opportunity to earn a proper livelihood, but whose labour has been scandalouslv exploited.