FINDING EMPLOYMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21377, 29 December 1932, Page 8

FINDING EMPLOYMENT

TRANSPORT AND, ART VIEWS OF PROFESSOR The view that more people should be encouraged to obtain employment in the transport services and in the professions pertaining" to music, education and art was expressed by Dr. A. G. B. Fisher, professor of economics at Otago University, during the course of a lecture at the (Workers' Educational Association's summer school at Paerata last evening. The address was one of a series on the •"Economic Problems of Increasing Prosperity." It was a popular view, particularly in New Zealand, said the professor, that although the agricultural industries were depressed, the best way to overcome the depression was to place more people on the land. The opinion was that the land offered an opening for persona who had been thrown out of employment by depression in other industries and that at all costs the men already on the land must be .liept there. Yet there was already a huge surplus of production. Certainly, said the speaker, the farmer was/ tli" backbone of the country, but was /there any advantage in having a backbone about three times as. thick as ;was necessary ? Another tendency arising from the depression was to increase tariff barriers to portect a country's industries from outside competition and thus keep as many people as possible engaged in those industries. This policy deprived the people of the advantages of industrial and scientific progress in other countries. One way out, he suggested, was to encourage the employment of more people Sn those services which applied only to the country itself, such as transport, music, education and art. These would add/to the enjoyment of the people. For instance, more people might travel in New Zealand to enjoy the beauties of - the country and thus create employment jn transport services ipr many; others.;