"NO IMAGINATION"

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 14 April 1928, Page 8

"NO IMAGINATION"

UNILMIM.OY.MI-NT GOVERNMENT CRITICISED "The present (■o-vcrninenl tin., neither im.ioin .1 ion nor will." .stale.- the annua) report of the New Zealand Labour i'.ir I \ executive, in dealing with the miction of unemployment. 'The onl\ re iiicdy I hey have in sighl is relief works ii such low rales of pa\ thai n.. one w ill desire to remain long on the job." Qllolillg the liglire: supplied by the industrial union- as published in the •Abstract of Statistics,' of -27th February, 1928, the report, shows that the number of persons unemployed was f/531. The applications for employment at the Government employment bureau-; during the week ended ,20th February 1928. was 1274. The total applying for work during the five weeks ending 20th Februaiy, 1923. was 429 C worst for thirty years

"Every person in touch with Ihe unemployment situation agrees that these figures cover a very small proportion Of those actually out of work.'' the report proceeds, "and the charitable organisations throughout the Dominion report that, the existing distress has not been exceeded .lining the past thirty years. No further evidence should be'required to indite the present system. Men. and women by the thousand are able and willing to work with no one to engage them. They are unemployed in spite of the fact that millions are in need of fhe products they could create. No country is free from unemployment : the United States of America, the Paradise ..I wealthuwiieis. hits eight mil lions unemployed.

EFFECT OF INVENTIONS 'The main cause of unemployment, is displacement- of labour by modern inventions. Displacement of labour is proceeding in all fields. One illustration will serve to show the cruelty inflicted by a. modern invention introduced into a system, where finance rather than human factors dominate. The transfer from coal to oil burning on one steamer alone threw 27 men on the unemployment market. This displacement has been multiplied 1000 fold on other ships—oti the waterfront- and in our factories. Inventive -renins, research, and mechanical appliances have so enhanced productive capacity (primary ami secondary) that not only is it possible to provide ample food', clothing, etc.. for all. but. there is ample room for recreative leisure which, given organisers and governing authorities with imagination and will, would ere ate a great- advance in* general wellbeing. "