UNEMPLOYMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 31 May 1930, Page 11

UNEMPLOYMENT

LABOUR PARTY'S POLICY In tho course of an address in Christchurch this week, Mr H, E. Holland M.P., leader of the Labour Party, said tho Party recognised that there must be a permanent solution of the unemployment problem. It would take areas of Crown .lands suitable for settlement, select men from tho unemployed, give them export supervision by members ot the Department of Agriculture and of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and place them on settlements in those areas. The unemployed would have the job of making roads to those settlements and of preparing the, land for settlement. 100 many baekblocks settlements failed be- . cause tho settlers were not givon access. The Labour Party would, give a good deal of attention to tho subdivision of largo estates. It would purchase by negotiation, if possible, as that was the better plan; but if negotiations failed, the party would not hesitate to use the compulsory powers already given by legislation". It would extend thework of view to encouraging far more intensive farming than there was at present. It. would give the maximum measure ot assistance to co-operative production, marketing and credit. It would give more liberal subsidies to local bodies, but would expect them to carry out their own local works and to pay the standard wages. The Labour Party would put more men on railway construction works. The South Island Main Trunk the Westport-inangahua line, the North island East Coast line and the Midland Pre, all of which had been authorised by Parliament. On the Inangahua line Work had been going [oh for twentyfour years. It had been started by Mr Scddon, but, purely as a retaliatory measure, the Reform Party had stopped the work. All coal lines were paying lines. There was no doubt ot that It was more economic to complete these lines and to got them into operation so that they would be giving a return on the capital involved. Mr 'Massey had definitely committed himself to build the South Island Midland line. When there had been a danger of losing the Wairau seat, Mr Girling, the then Member for the district, had said that he had Mr Coates's authority to say that the' South Island Main Trunk line would be completed. Re-form-lost the seat, and Reform then opposed the construction of tho line. The 400 men on the South Island Mam Trunk could bo doubled, and the same could be said of the Westport-inanga-hua line and the North Island East Coast railway. They could absorb tho unemployed arid make the railways give some return on the capital.