WORK FOR UNEMPLOYED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19717, 17 August 1927, Page 14

WORK FOR UNEMPLOYED

LOCAL BODIES' ATTITUDE.

HARBOUR BOARD'S POSITION..

NO FRESH UNDERTAKINGS. "We have helped to meet the unemployment position very considerably," said Mr. H. R. Mackenzie, chairman of the Auckland Harbour Board, in moving at yesterday's meeting of the board that the Labour Department should be informed that the board did not propose to commence anv special new works for the relief of unemployment. Mr. Mackenzie recalled that the board had opened the Rangitoto quarries last winter, thus providing work for 80 men. It had also to be remembered that the board carried on all its works during the winter and no men were thVown out- of employment. The motion was carried.

No relief work for the unemployed will at, present be provided in the Manukau County. At a meeting of the County Council yesterday the engineer said a special loan could be raised to piovide relief work by surfacing Favona Road, connecting Mangere and Otahuhu, but this work could not be clone until summer, when the unemployment position would probably not be so acute. Only a few men would bo employed on the contract. It was decided not to provide relief work at present. THE DUTY OF THE STATE. VIEWPOINT OF FARMERS. State responsibility for economic conditions creating unemployment, and the duty of the Government towards the unemployed, were matters discussed by the Auckland executive of the New Zealand Farmers' Union last evening. Mr. W. Lee-Martin directed attention to a resolution passed by the parent body in Wellington, stating the Prime Minister had been too benoficient towards the unemployed and that it was not the duty of the Government to deal with the position.

The motion, said Mr. Lee-Martin, had slipped through with little or no discussion, and apparently under some misapprehension. The* Waikato branch of the union had since expressed disapproval of its form and he thought the Auckland executive too, should disassociate itself from such sentiments

Mr C. C. Munro said he disagreed with the resolution inasmuch as it refuted any responsibility in times of unemployment, but he thought the rate of " unemployment pav " just. It-was resolved: "That it is the duty of the Government to legislate to prevent as far as practicable, periods of unemployment which are an economic loss to the"'Dominion. When, through no fault of their own, people are thrown out of ivork. the Government should, as far as possible, provide temporary employment for those prepared to accept it."