WORK AND RELIEF.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 121, 22 April 1932, Page 4

WORK AND RELIEF.

NO SMALL ACHIEVEMENT. “There is nobody who will pretend -—least of all will the Government or anybody who has had anything to do with the problem of unemployment—that everything has been done, and that all is satisfactory,” said Mrs J ; G. Coates, wife of Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, Minister of Unemployment, in her presidential address at the an- ! nual meeting of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Reform League at Wellington. Mrs Coates added that there was need for more caution but there were some grounds for satisfaction. It was not an exaggeration to say that work and relief had been provided for every able-bodied unemployed man and that was no small acnievement. “It may not have been on a generous scale and often it ,has not been work of the kind the men were accustomed to,” said Mrs Coates, “but when we remember how the number of unemployed swept up to a level that New Zealand has never known, it is something to have mad© provision for all.” “The most attractive of the newer schemes which have just been initiated is on© for allowing married men with their families to move on to small sections out in the country,” said Mrs Coates. “It is quite reasonable to be sure that many of the families who move out on to small sections for a start, will become permanent settlers with farms of their own. That is part of the scheme which is already being tried out. Besides the small sections from farms on which cottages are being placed, options are being taken to buy. land which will be sufficient for small farms.” Mrs Coates remarked that women’s organisations were already doing good work for workless women. The policy was to aid these bodies to extend their activities.