THE UNEMPLOYED

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 76, 25 February 1930, Page 6

THE UNEMPLOYED

DRASTIC PROPOSALS. NEW TAXATION RECOMMENDED* (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 25. The heavy cost of relieving unemployment during the last ; few yea™ and the necessity of evolving permanent methods of dealing with the problem are the main points in the report submitted to the Minister of Labour, Hon. W. A.. Veitcli, by the special commitee which he appointed to consider the matter. . . , One feature likely to be a subject of considerable controversy is the recommendation to the Government that it shall set up a New Zealand Employment Board to organise the who e ct public effort, to-spread the supply ot work more evenly throughout the year and to provide sustenance allowances for registered workers whom the board cannot provide with employment. Though it is stressed that the primary function of this body should be to provide work, tho relief of unemp'ovment, declares the committee, is a social obligation which all classes should recognise. Unemployment insurance scheme*, such as those operating in England are, s lates the report, quite unsuited for New Zealand conditions, and, while exempting large sections of the community from financial responsibility, would throw such burdens on industries as to probably create the evil they are designed to avoid. PROPOSED TAXATION. Therefore, the report recommends a new taxation system tor the creation ot employment and a sustenance fund to be expended under the sole control of the Employment Board, raised as follows: — A special individual employment tax on all poisons, with certain exceptions such us hospital patients, casual female workers and pensioners. This tax would he paid by all other persons over the age of 18 years as follows; — Males, It- and 19 years of age, 18s per annum; males, 20 years and over, 24s per annum. Females (to apply to all engaged in office, business, industry, proiessional work or domestic service), 18 and 19 years ot age, 12s per annum; 20 years and over, 18s per annum. Further revenue, it is recommended, would he secured from other sections of the community by the following me .ins A flat tax of Id in the £1 on all indr, idua! incomes (including dividends) in excess of £SOO per annum; a flat tax ol Id in the £1 on all undisiiibutcd prolits of companies and on dividends or all absentee shareholders in registered companies; a flat tax of 3-lOths of a penny m the 111 on the taxable balance ol the unimproved value of country lands as assessed for land us 1 by annual subsidy from the Consolidated Fund of one-tliird of the board’s total annual expenditure. The report suggests that as local bodies would, by the operation of this scheme, be relieved ot the financial liability which they have hitherto been obliged to carry, it would be right if they directly contributed to the employment and sustenance fund 1 per cent of their annual revenue from general rates. Hu. suggested receipts of the board would totai £700,000 per annum, made up as follows: Employees’ taxation, £505.000; income tax, including dividend tax, £80,000; tax on undistributed company profits, £22,500; tax on country lands, £67,SOU; counties, cities, boroughs and town districts’ contributions, £25,000. Total, £700,000. It is pointed out that the State contribution would vary with the extent of unemployment each year, while the other sources of revenue would be c instant and would enable funds to be luilt up to meet special years of stress PAYMENTS TO UNEMPLOYED. Sustenance payments would be made to applicants for whom it has been impossible to find work, these varying from 21s weekly in the case of males over 20, and 17s 6d for females over 20, down to 12s 6d weekly for females from 18 •to 20 years of age, while the wives of unemployed would receive 17s 6d weekly and each child, up' to four in one family, 4s weekly. The board would arrange with local authorities to carry out special relief works, if needed, and wouid bear the extra cost involved in carrying out its requirements. The report again emphasises the importance providing dwellings on easy terms for workers close to centres of employment and suggests that as the Dominion’s prosperity depends on an increase in export revenue, further avenues of developing primary production should be explored. The commitete considers the most promising are the pork and poultry industries, which should be encouraged by removing the Customs duties on imported animal foods. A personal investigation of 453 cases of men registered for long periods as unemployed disclosed the fact that a very small proportion were unemployable. The predominance of unskilled men was marked and it was noted that unemployment increased with advancing age. Relief works have absorbed immense sums of public money, Government and local bodv ex|>enditure being as follows: 1926-27, £256,333; 1927-27, £673,300; 1928-29, £915,406. The Government’s proportion of the above expenditure in three years was £1,285,498, and as the Government expenditure rose that of local bodies fell.