The Hawera Star FRIDAY. JUNE' 14, 1935. ECONOMIC TREND.

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 14 June 1935, Page 6

The Hawera Star

FRIDAY. JUNE' 14, 1935. ECONOMIC TREND.

jelive'reil every evening by 6 o clock in Hawera, Manaia. Kaupokonui, Otakeho 000, Pibarna. Opunake. Eltham. Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuua. Te Kin. Mahoe, how garth, Manutahi. Kakara mea, Alton, Hurleyville. Patea, Whenua kura, Waverley, Mokoia. Whakamara Ohangai. Ueretnere. Fraser Road anc Ararata

The totalisalor turnover has long been regarded as an unofficial economic barometer in New Zealand, but it now has a rival in the revenue figures of the Unemployment Fund. The Minister of Employment. in his recent analysis of the Unemployment Board’s finances, showed that there were good grounds for estimating that there had been an increase of £3,600,000 in salaries and wages distributed during the last financial year, compared with the previous year. The Board’s figures make an even better guide to the economic trend than the totalisator, for whereas the latter is largely an indication of the state of mind of the public in regard to spending, the former shows the increase or reduction in the actual distribution of wages and salaries. An increase of over three and ahalf million is something tangible upon which to base an optimistic outlook. Another indication of a avourable turn in the economic, conditions of the Dominion, though not one upon which so much reliance may he placed, is furnished in the fact that the return in the past year from the emergency tax was, notwithstanding the reduction in the amount of the tax, about £200,000 higher than in the preceding year. The calculation by the Unemployment Board is that this reflected an increase of 284 per cent, during the year in the income of the community derived from sources other than salary or wages. The figures quoted by the Minister of Employment are among the most encouraging of the signs that the clouds of depression are being dissolved and that the public may look forward with some confidence to a steady dispersal of them. This does not imply that the Unemployment Board is in any likelihood in the very near future of beingrelieved of its responsibilities. The evil of unemployment is one that is not swiftly eradicated when it has assumed large proportions, and the question of the means that should be devised for absorbing the labour for which existing indust i*ies cannot suitably make provision is one that will in all probability have yet to receive the most earnest consideration.