UNEMPLOYMENT REMEDIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21358, 6 December 1932, Page 13

UNEMPLOYMENT REMEDIES

Sir, —There are some facts that must be faced if wo are to escape complete exhaustion of our resources. If any man now advised farmers that the. most effective method of making their farming profitable would ho, the building of houses and sheds far beyond their requirements, would lie, as an authority, rank any higher than a madman? Yet here wo have public men who should give us a lead in wisdom recommending just such a policy as a means of initiating a forward movement toward prosperity! Any person with the least sense of the facts knows that, our public utilities and services have doubled and trebled in cost since 1914, and that, the burden is now breaking the back of industry.' To use up our resources in adding to these unproductive utilities at the present time would bo a policy of criminal madness. That capital should be brought into action may bo granted, but it» should be used in aid of industry and production, not in the breeding of additional white elephants, to assist in devouring our diminished substance. By, common consent farming is now unprofitable, even with the aid of experience, and under the best conditions; if this is so, and it will scarcely bo denied, how are workers, on second-class land, and devoid of advantages, to escape heavy losses? If land settlement and kindred schemes arc to be, even though only Temporarily, unproductive, the position will bo simply this: Our rapidly diminishing resources will be. drawn on, not only to maintain the men, but to provide the buildings, fences, implements and all else required. If wo continue to employ great armies of men on unproductive works that require almost nothing but labour, we must move rapidly toward ruin; if, for a change, we employ them on works equally unproductive, but involving heavy expenditure on materials, our movement toward ruin will be equally certain, but far more rapid. The position of the. Dominion is easily slated. The money value of our exports has fallen to half, while the money cost of almost everything wo require in production has remained practically stationary. As we have no control over external values, our own costs must be so reduced that private employment, of our full supply of labour, will bo made profitable. As a temporary measure, private employment might be subsidised, but quite certainly tho work must be provided by private persons, not public bodies, if wo are to escape insolvency. Manurewa. J. Johnstone.