FINDING WORK FOR ALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20375, 2 October 1929, Page 10

FINDING WORK FOR ALL.

Very sympathetic attention is due to the Prime Minister's announcement of the Government's scheme for giving immediately an opportunity of employment to all needing it. He raised a good deal of curiosity when, in the early hours of Saturday morning, he assured the House that in live weeks there would be in the Dominion no unemployed capable of going to work. "We will deal with the matter in a practical way," was his confident answer. In the statement now made public he goes further into detail: the unemployed are invited to register immediately at the Government labour bureaux—or post ofliccs, in the rural districts—and work will be found in connection with railways, lands, buildings, forestry, roads and every kind of activity directed by the Government. Any attempt to deal with the present admittedly unsatisfactory position merits a cordial welcome, but most people will feci that the Government has still a great deal to do if it is to make good the specific promise to absorb all the unemployed within five weeks. It may be that more attention has been given to practical details than appears on the surface. The scheme as now revealed is far from complete, but a beginning has been made, and at least the hope may be expressed that the Prime Minister will be able to do all he undertook within the time he allowed himself. Meantime, there are immediate difficulties to be faced. Some of them have been described in questions put to the Prime Minister at once on the floor of the House. A very careful system of inquiry will be essential in connection with the universal registration that is invited, if registration is to lead to appropriate. not to say congenial, employment. Moreover, there should be adequate investigation of the bona fides of applicants. It is conceivable, without any undue magnifying of the need to safeguard this wholesale registration from abuse, that some already in employment may be tempted to register v merely in order to get work different from that in which they are now engaged. This, if not checked firmly, would produce harmful dislocation in industry. Providing scrupulous care be taken to prevent such illegitimate swelling of the registrations, as well as to treat each case, lis Sir Joseph Ward puts it, on its merits, the plan may do something to relieve distress. In any event, its practical value will be speedily tested by actual trial, and like everything else it must soon be judged by its fruits.