The northern Advocate Daily FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1936. PUBLIC WORKS POLICY

Northern Advocate, 31 January 1936, Page 4

The northern Advocate Daily

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1936. PUBLIC WORKS POLICY

Registered for transmission t&rougb the poet as a Newspaper.

The Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, lias made an important, statement of the policy of public works which he intends to ask Parliament to I adopt. If the Minister's proposals are put into effect, the whole aspect of public works, as existing during recent years, should be changed. Mr Semple evidently intends that the fact of "being ■ on the Public Works," a familiar term during the depression, shall be a matter of which ablebodied men may be proud, rather than ashamed. It would be a libel on a large army of hardworking men to say that every Public " Works labourer has practised "Government stroke." Such a statement would be absolutely untrue, for there are to he found in many walks of life toaay men wiho, to escape unemployment, threw themselves wholeheartedly into the work which the co-operative system gave them. But it must be said that the very nature of the system has tended to encourage a desire to "spin out" a job rather than put it through in the quickest time. This has been aggravated since the depression. The system has, of course, /helped to tide the country over an emergency, and, to that extent, credit must be allowed. Mr Semple believes that the time has come when the country should try. to get its public works done as efficiently and as cheaply as , possible. The Government of the day, at its wits' end to provide men with 'employment, has been pleased to place unemployed on public works, and to rely solely upon manual labour to do that which could have been done more cheaply and more quickly by the use of machinery. It will be recalled, in this connection, that an allegation was made at a meeting of the Otamatea County Council this week that a gang of men had been set to work in a quarry without sufficient tools for quarrying, with the result that they had only produced six yards of metal in ten days. This may or may not be a statement of fact, but it is common knowledge that, in providing relief for the unemployed, in lieu of giving sustenance, the use of machinery or labour-saving devices has been prohibited. The consequence is that public works of all kinds done by relief labour have probably cost more than they should have cost. Mr Semple proposes that the Public Works Department shall no longer provide relief work for the unemployed, but that all its undertakings shall be standardised fulltime jobs on the co-operative contract system (wherever possible), that a "decent living wage" shall be paid to all workers, the rate being the same whether the men are Miaoris or pakehas,, married or single, and that reasonable accommodation shall be provided. The Minister is insistent that the most efficient machinery and methods of work shall be employed on tasks employed by the Public Works Department, as he is opposed to men being regarded as merely wheelbarrow pushers. When McKenzie, Seddon and those, associated with them initiated the co-operative contract system, the idea was that gangs should be composed equally of the weak and the strong, so that the one might help the other. Anadmirable object it was, but ! beset with difficulties which suggest themselves. Whether Mr Semple intends to act along these lines, or to insist that only the strong and the efficient shall form gangs he has not said, though his intention may be gathered from a statement that "he was determined to build up a team of workers who, by reason of fair treatment and decent conditions, would be proud to take their part in building New Zealand." Mr Semple's proposal* have much to commend them, but it will be recognised that they zve intertwined with many things which affect the welfare of the country. Attractive conditions of employment on public works may be expected to affect the supply of labour required by the farming industry, 'for instance, and there is also to be considered the extent to which will be aggravated the difficulty of finding relief work for those who remain out of their ordinary trades or occupations. These are matters to which Cabinet has no doubt given thought, for the standard set by the Government in respect of its own employees may be expected to have repercu*-

sions in the whole employing world of the Dominion. Standing out prominently as an example of this is Mr Semple's declaration that the forty-hour week is to be adopted by the Public Works Department. This suggests that a forty-hour week will soon become a matter of general discussion. So with other aspects of the Minister's proposals.