A KEY INDUSTRY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 22 June 1932, Page 2

A KEY INDUSTRY

HOW IT MAY BE ASSISTED THE BUILDING TRADE ONE WAY OF REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT

While everyone will concede the fact that the Government has a problem of the first magnitude to solve respecting unemployment some concern exists throughout the Dominion regarding the methods adopted by the Unemployment Board (writes L. P. Aspley in the “Christchurch Times”). With the exception of the small rural holding scheme, the Government, is only applying palliatives and to business men .the thought is preponderant that, in comparison with the number of men who will benefit, too great an amount

of money will be required satisfactorily to establish the small farm scheme.

The consensus of opinion among citizens who are giving the unemployment problem much thought is that the Unemployment Board should concentrate on getting tradesmen back into their regular avocations. It is considered that too much zeal has been put into schemes for providing temporary relief work, and that the works at present being carried out by local bodies are only sedatives instead of a cure for unemployment. The time is ripe for a specific plan to be adopted and united action taken effectively to place skilled men back to regular work in their various trades, with beneficial results to the men themselves and the whole community. BACK TO OCCUPATIONS The recent proposals put forward by the Unemployment Board to assist the building industry, at best will only lead to intermittent work for the tradesmen concerned. Private individuals and unemployed tradesmen possess no building plant, therefore no major construction work could be undertaken. The scheme could only result in jobbing work being done which would be pf little benefit to the parties concerned. It must be stressed that it is absolutely necessary to get building trade operatives back to their regular occupations at award rates of pay, through the usual channels of employment by the builders and contractors, and other businesses associated therewith. Employing, as it does, so many different artisans, including carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, plumbers, drainlayers, electricians, and painters, the importance of a revival in the building industry, in its relation to national rehabilitation, cannot be overestimated and until activity in this industry is apparent no substantial decrease in unemployment can lie looked for. It is on the building industry that the Unemployment Board should concentrate. It should provide the industry with some stimulus. People should be urged- ; to proceed with the erection of houses, j They should be offered some induce- ! ment in the form of a loan at, say, 2i per cent, interest towards labour ! costs in connection" with the erection of buildings, or, according to their financial position, granted a reasonable subsidy towards such costs. The board could go so far as to assist builders who are prepared to erect houses with a view to sale

LOAN AND SINKING FUND

! In the ease of a loan, a sinking fund at a reasonable rate could be provided for, also provision could be made for repayment of the money in the event of the property over which the loan is secured being sold at any time. In cases where persons needed outside assistance by way of mortgage, it would I be necessary for the board’s advance to 1 be classed as a second mortgage, otherwise difficulty may be found in obtaining outside money. It has been computed by competent authorities that the labour involved in the actual construction, i.e., various tradesmen occupied on the site, amounts to between £250 and £3OO in the erection of a house costing £750. Of the remaining money a large portion I,is absorbed in wages to trades directly ! or indirectly concerned with manufactures or supplies in connection with the erection of the house. However, it would only be the labour involved in the actual construction work that would have to be considered, and the board, working in conjunction with the State Advances Department, could easily arrive > at a definite basis for checking the applications for loans or subsidies, and the provision in respect to selecting tradesmen from the uncm- . ployed as provided in the board’s original building trades revival scheme could be enforced.

OPEN TO ALL

Some may assert that certain private individuals may benefit at the expense of others, but the scheme would be open to all to take advantage of, and, when it is realised that until the building industry is again on the road to prosperity, all other trades, businesses and professions must suffer, any opposition will disappear. In a final analysis it can be stated that a long-range policy suggests that a complete return to prosperity in the Dominion depends on a recovery of world prices and settlement of problems of world-wide scope. These are matters beyond the control of the Government of our Dominion, but it should adopt a short-range policy and examine every avenue by which tradesmen in the building industry could be placed in regular employment. Given reasonable continuity of employment at fair rates of pay, the average worker is a good spender, and if the building industry were again active the purchasing and consuming power of the workers engaged therein would be reflected throughout the whole of the Dominion.