The Hawera Star FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1935. REAL WORK AND REAL WAGES.

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 29 March 1935, Page 6

The Hawera Star

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1935. REAL WORK AND REAL WAGES.

Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Hawara, Manaia, Kaupokonui, Otakeho, Oeo. Pibama, Opunake. Eltham, Ngaere, V Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Te Kiri, Mahoe, Lowgarth, Manutahi, Kakaramea, Alton. Harleyville. Patea, Whenuakura, Waverley, Hokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai. Meremere. I’raeer Hoad and Ararat*-.

With the approach of winter the public, the Government and local authorities are naturally showing a revival of interest in unemployment relief measures. The Municipal Conference recently made a statement on the subject regarding the desirability of finding some better ways out of the problem than any that have yet been devised, but, in the absence of any well-thought-out scheme, that resolution will remain an empty gesture. Some very real and able contributions to the solution of the problem have been made by organised bodies and individuals, but in the main they have got nowhere, for in nearly all cases their ‘ ‘ solutions ’ ’ call for drastic departures from the old way of thinking about and dealing with economic and industrial problems —and governments and public

are'veryeh'ary' of 'launching oitt into anything new and untried. But there is one thing that the public and the official mind could do to assist, without taking risks with new economic theories—that is to arrive at the determination that real work is worth real wages.

When unemployment relief was first- introduced on a big scale, financed by a special wage tax, a majority of the public foresaw that there was a very grave danger of “relief” being regarded as a right and as a permanency by a section of the workers. Those fears have been justified to a very large extent; there is no doubt about that—but it is scarcely a matter for wonder when there are men whs have known ho - other class of employment for three years and more. It is all very well for the employed section of the public to express indignation when relief workers “pick and choose” their work and sometimes turn down jobs, in favour of relief 'work, 'but it has to be remembered that, three, and even five years, on relief work brings a new outlook for the men concerned. Relief work becomes their “job”; they know how to “work” that job to the best advantage and know exactly what they stand to gain or lose in wages and cost of living by accepting other classes of employment. The public has not yet got used to the idea that [ideas of independence and of ambition have changed for men who have known nothing but “relief” for years and have lost hope of knowing anything else in the future. Such experiences bring changes to the individual outlook comparable to the changes wrought upon the outlook of the civilian who suddenly is turned into a soldier. At first the army j life is a novelty, where hardships are borne cheerfully and the limited opportunities for pleasure seized upon with zest. -But after long months and weary years the army is just a job and for the majority of individuals in it the future is limited to the “duration.” It is not a matter for wonder that many long-term relief workers have developed a similar

psychology regarding the “duration” of unemployment. But this is not the only ill-effect of unemployment. The public and many of the institutions which represent the public, have also developed a “relief rate” complex. The public has been appealed to times without number to provide work for the unemployed and it has responded very generously. Many individuals and institutions have spent money in order to go half-way to meet the subsidies offered by the Unemployment Board; they have found work which otherwise would not have been undertaken merely in order to provide occupation and some degree of relief for the unemployed —and in many cases individual

helpers have had to curtail their ordinary expenditure in order to do so. But the inevitable result has been that when real work has to be done nearly everybody thinks of the unemployed—and of unemployed relief rates. The effect of this is to be seen all over New Zealand. Prospective employers, who normally would have let contracts to tradesmen or skilled labourers, or at least called open tenders for skilled or semiskilled work, now supply their own materials and obtain the

labour from the ranks of the unemployed. If they do not do their best to get an Unemployment Board subsidy upon the labour, they at least adopt the unemployment relief rate as a basis for the wages to be paid. No one is to blame for this. Everybody has a right to take advantage of a favourable market. But where is it getting us? As long as relief pay and relief conditions set the standard for . ‘ ‘ real ’ ’ work—that is work that has to be done and is not undertaken out of charitable feelings for the. unemployed—so long will we have a large scale unemployment problem, for we are thus fostering the very conditions which we all desire to see disappear.