RELIEF WORK AND THE TAX

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21458, 4 April 1933, Page 13

RELIEF WORK AND THE TAX

Sir, —The unemployed men's garden behind the hospital is another example of unsatisfactory returns from unemployment funds. I, along with others, pay unemployment tax and find it an anxious strain to produce it, and the shocking wasteful way the money is expended makes having to work hard to pay this tax a distasteful business. Might I suggest another way of paying this tax. Auckland is filled with property that wants repairing. Very few to-day can afford to pay unemployment tax and keep property in repair. Suppose I show dockets for £lO (for example) at current rates of work for labour for repair; let that be deducted from my unemployment tax. This would make a call for material and men would find work at their proper callings at a living winge, thus in turn providing unemployment taxes for others. At present, wo liavo. all sorts of mechanics handling shovels with no heart for the work, and the don't care man to make the pace. This is killing something in a man. who in tho ordinary way would take a pride in his work. Some such scheme as outlined would put men into their proper occupations, help business people and stop the property rot that is now going on in Auckland and throughout New Zealand. F.J.H.