PRIVATE GAIN FROM RELIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22352, 25 February 1936, Page 8

PRIVATE GAIN FROM RELIEF

The decision of the Minister of Employment to cancel No. 4B unemployment relief scheme 'so far as it applies to sheep farmers, will be generally approved provided he can create alternative work. Under this scheme the Unemployment Board has met half the labour costs of contracts for land development work on farms. From its inception to June, 1935, no less than 9633 contracts had been made. The amount paid in subsidies at March 31, 1935, was £232,415, and it was estimated by the Unemployment Board that the carrying capacity of the land involved had been increased by 668,366 sheep, 97,060 cattle and 490 pigs. The national benefit is clear, but the private benefit is considerable, and while it is difficult to apply relief measures to any industry without giving private gain, that can be regarded only a'S a bad feature of relief administration. The sheep farmers having been excluded from the No. 4B scheme, th'e Hon. H. T. Armstrong should now review the Ashburton County irrigation scheme, the bulk of the cost of which will represent relief labour. It is openly claimed that this scheme will double the production of the land involved. Assuming that the increase is 50 per cent, a very generous gift will be made to the farmers concerned for which they will pay little of the original capital cost unless the Minister applies to it the sound judgment he had shown over the No. 4B in respect sheep farmers. The severe restriction of the building -subsidy scheme may be an arguable question, seeing that building is a key industry and that the private benefit is not always realisable. There must come a time, however, when the stimulus from taxation must be tapered off and the Government evidently believes that that time has arrived.