UNEMPLOYMENT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 November 1928, Page 7

UNEMPLOYMENT.

No- single- factor could do more than the abolition of ithe Liquor Traffic to help solve the unemployment .problem. The Liquoir Trade aggravates the- unemployment difficulty. If it were abolished, all its employees could be usefully engaged, and" over 5000 mew jobs- created by the Stimulus to industry following diverting £8,831,000 per annum to useful trades. IN 1927. In 1927, drinkers in New Zealand spent £8,831,531 on liquor. The Liquor Traffic does n'oit produce wealth. '_ It merely Collects money, some of which paiss'eis to the Government. If the Liquor Traffic did not eollect it, the people would use it in other ways, and the Government would collect it's proportion without increasing -taxation. Because the Liquor Traffic is leglised in New Zealand, we lose already produced wealth amounting t'o more than £2,000,000 per year; or in three, years more tluitn £7,000,000. Wealth that is produced, and then destroyed or -lost, can never be recovered. It is a dead, loss; just as if wo had built £7,000,000 or fine buildings- and public works, -and then destroyed them. To the above loss we must add expenditure incurred in dealing with intoxicated persons, serious 'offences duC to drink, charitable aid, t'o drunkards’families, maintenance of drunkards’ children-, etc. We also lost wealth through inefficiency, motor fatalities ain-d accidents, bad. debts, shipping and other losses due to- drink. These represent a tremendous loss every year, and the sober citizen pays heavily, directly and indirectly, for them. About £1,000,000 per annum is sent overseas to. pay for imported liquors. *