NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1931. THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM

Northern Advocate, 2 November 1931, Page 4

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1931. THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM

Registered for Transmission Through the Post as a Newspaper.

A useful conference was held in Whangarei on Saturday afternoon, when delegates of local bodies and Government departments discussed ways in which a co-operative effort might ■ be made to solve the unemployment problem. The conference was the outcome of the invitation extended by the Hon. J. G. Coates, Minister in Charge of Unemployment, to which we made lengthy reference some days ago. Mr Coates desires that men now occupied on unproductive road ,work should be transferred “over the fence” and given an opportunity to improve farmlands and increase primary production. To help in this transition, co-operation of Government, local bodies and the farming community is essential. How this can best be brought about was the problem set the conference held on Saturday. Some plain speaking was indulged in by Mr A. F, Blackburn, District Land Valuer, who, paraphrasing the saying that if a man will not work neither shall be eat, declared in effect that owners of land who will not develop their holdings to the maximum extent should be forced to allow others to do so. With this principle there can be no dispute. Valuable as the Dominion’s secondary industries may be, and needful as it is to foster them in every legitimate way, it is undeniable that the prosperity of the country depends mainly upon the agricultural and pastoral industries. As the output of primary products is increased, and the standard of excellence maintained, thus allowing New Zealand to secure the fullest advantages of whatever prices may be obtainable in the overseas market, so will our national wealth be augmented. It is, therefore, of vital importance that every available acre should be brought to fullest production and provide occupation for the maximum number of families. This means that land which is lying idle or is only partially productive should be subdivided into areas sufficiently small to require intensive cultivation. Mr Blackburn, in the course of his address to the conference held on Saturday, pointed out that in order to increase production it will be necessary to absorb additional men on the land, and he contended that in order to obtain a speedy return to a state of prosperity and security “the best of our lands lying idle, or only partly developed, should be immediately tackled. ’ ’ Expropriation of land was not suggested. On the other hand, it was proposed that a sum of £1,500,000 per annum, extending over a period of five years, should be made available as loans, at a very low rate of interest, to farmers who, on the plea of want of capital, are unable fully to develop their land. If, with this inducement, any landholder, did not increase the productivity of his farm, a portion of his estate should be taken by the Crown at valuation and so made available for closer settlement. The conference was rightly in agreement with the principle involved in this proposal, for it endorsed the following observations: “That the time has arrived when the country cannot afford to permit idle or partially developed lands in occupation to remain in their present unprofitable condition”; and ‘ ‘ That where an area of land is too great to be profitably

handled for any reason by the owner, the excess may be acquired at valuation by the Crown for closer settlement. ’ * The conference, while recognising that the absorption of the unemployed in the scheme of land settlement is of paramount importance, and proposing various means by which that might be accomplished, realised the necessity for provision of immediate assistance to those who are out of work. In this connection it was resolved that No. 4A and other existing schemes should continue until absorbed in the major and accepted scheme. The decisions of the conference, which are of a distinctly interesting character, are reported fully in another part of this issue, and we have no they will be perused sympathetically by our readers. They may not go very far, but they are in the right direction.