UNEMPLOYED RELIEF FUNDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20901, 17 June 1931, Page 8

UNEMPLOYED RELIEF FUNDS.

The determination of the Prime Minister to bring the activities of the Unemployment Board to a complete halt at the end of this week is reaffirmed in his statement published to-day. Mr. Forbes insists that the board has spent all the money provided by Parliament and that nothing can be done until ■ further authority is given by Parliament. His stereotyped reply to representations from all over the country is that the matter ie receiving the earnest consideration of the Government. What is actually being done, according to his own account, is that the Government is waiting for a recommendation from the Minister of Labour; it will be considered by the Cabinet and a proposal will then be made to the House. In the meantime, he suggests that the whole responsibility for relief should be undertaken by private and public body sources, though he does not explain how funds are to be raised and organisation improvised in the few days remaining before the Government's system collapses. The Prime Minister's attitude is incomprehensible. No doubt, under the Act, the Unemployment Board has no authority for expenditure in excess of its actual revenue, nor power to borrow in anticipation of revenue. That restriction on its powers may have been deliberate; on the other hand, it is probably due to lack of foresight when the legislation was drafted. But Mr. Forbes will not easily convince the general public that the Government is absolutely unable to provide means for carrying on the relief works until Parliament has reviewed the whole situation. Parliament gave authority for an advance of £IOO,OOO to the board from the Consolidated Fund. Was that advance made"? There is no record of it in the Treasury ac-

counts. Parliament also gave authority for the making of regulations "as may be necessary for the purpose of giving full effect to the provisions of this Act." Could not that authority be strained to permit temporary financing of the board 1 ? At least the' Government could authorise local authorities, who have borrowing powers, to finance the continuation of works in hand, promising a refund later of the wages costs. The position is simply that the public expects the Government to continue the relief activities until Parliament has had time to consider the whole problem thoroughly, and that Parliament would readily validate any action taken in the emergency to provide the necessary money. In these circumstances, the attitude of the Government is difficult to understand.