THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1932. THE CITY AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21099, 5 February 1932, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1932. THE CITY AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

The statement made bv the Mayor to the City Council on the subject of unemployment merited the cordial reception given it. Immediate and unanimous agreement with all its suggestions was not to be expected, but its serviceable review df the position and its eminently practical character brought the problem, as lj. affects the city and areas closely adjacent, into sharp focus. In particular, its enunciation of the council's measure of responsibility to give a lead in the matter was justifiably emphasised. Certain suggestions in it assumed reasonably that some degree of co-operation with other local authorities is essential to effective handling of the position, yet in anything attempted by way of organisation on the basis of local boundaries the first move obviously devolves upon the City Council. In the course of his statement, Mr. Hutchison rightly impressed the responsibility of the Government to bring into early operation a complete plan for absorbing the unemployed in developmental work on an adequate scale. The whole countrv eagerly looks for such a scheme. It has been disappointingly long in coming. Its full implementing will take time, however, and means to provide relief work, as distinct from that scheme, must be found. The local bodies have already been associated with relief work: the No. 5 Scheme was devised to enlist their co-operation with the Government. But that scheme, good in intent and valuable up to a point, has reached the limit of its effectiveness. Some local bodies, unable to find 'their quota of the cost, have been compelled to abandon it. This is an important factor in the position now to be faced, compelling search for other means, lest bodies contiguous to those abandoning the scheme Vie saddled with the task of providing employment for the workless in those areas as well as the workless in their own. If it be assumed—as it must —that No. 5 Scheme will be hopelessly insufficient even as a temporary expedient, then auxiliary measures must be taken, and Mr. Hutchison's idea of local organisation of these measures is sound and practicable. To begin with, there is met thus the difficulty of knowing precisely the number of those needing relief work, their several circumstances as to dependants and other particulars, and their aptitudes for different classes of work. With each local body's territory made an unemployment relief district, and bureaux for registration allotted accordingly, it should be possible to plot the regional necessity exactly, as a whole and in its parts. The gain of immediate local information would be considerable, and on this essential basis of facts local responsibility could be easily apportioned and controlled ; collaboration among the local bodies concerned, where this might be deemed desirable, would also be facilitated. There can be no workable scheme involving local responsibility apart from this strict registration by locality. The organisation of a controlling committee, representative of every locality collaborating, with sectional subcommittees responsible for local oversight, would ensure strict operation of the plan. As to the work to be provided, there is assumed that No. 5 Scheme would be operable in some localities, harmony with the Unemployment Board's arrangements being thereby assured ; elsewhere and usefully supplemental to that scheme even where it was in operation, the suggested work centres and such activities as market gardening should help considerably. These possibilities have not been exploited as they should have been. In this connection, the co-operation of business firms in the ways outlined by Mr. Hutchison should be readily forthcoming. Details of this part 'of the proposal may well/be among the matters discussed when the council again has the whole subject before it. In the idea that suitable persons might be able and willing to give voluntary and unrernunerated assistance, in supervision of work undertaken, there is a call for social service to which many will deem it a privilege, in these days of national and individual hardship, to respond.

On the need for sustenance, a subject so germane to that of relief work that the two have been coordinated in the Mayor's proposals, a helpful lead has been given by him. The Hospital Board's dispensing of unemployment relief has not been satisfactorily done: it has proved burdensome to the board and a source of growing anxiety to the contributing bodies. To get this into the immediate control of these bodies, wherever' a practicable plan can be introduced, is a step in the right direction, and the desirability of co-ordinating it with the provision of relief work has been impressed by disquieting experience. It could be handled effectively by a committee acting for the whole- metropolitan area, with representatives of the Labour Department and recognised social organisations sitting with the delegates from the various local bodies. This method depends for its success on a more businesslike check on the dispensing of relief than has hitherto been exercised. The advantage of one register, in place of the, several kept by the Hospital Board and sundry social organisations, must be patentThere is all too strong reason to believe that the existing arrangement has not, prevented abuse by conscienceless applicants for relirf. tn the detriment of those truly deserving. The Mayor's proposals have been evidently framed, in this as in other respects, to serve thn present need more adequately. If is well that the City Council has made full consideration of them a matter of urgency.