UNEMPLOYMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22399, 21 April 1936, Page 13

UNEMPLOYMENT

Sir, —As every intelligent man and woman knows it is a colossal task to cope with unemployment, and it ha 9 exercised the brains of the best'and most able men in the world. In this connection I would like to point out that great numbers of men and women are working overtime, some up to and over 12 hours per day. Could not the present Government pass a law to stop this at once and give other people a chance to do the work? This would be more humane and more Christian-like at least. I think that when any man or woman has worked an honest eight hours per day it should be sufficient. Eureka.

Sir, —In reply to Mr. Stone's letter I only wish to point out that my suggestions would afford some help in this direction. If Mr. Stone is qiiit-e satisfied that scientific and intensive culture would bring back the unemployed to useful work on the land 1 for one would be the first to congratulate him on doing something which has taxed the brains of the civilised world for centuries. Wo must not forget that quite lately vast quantities of food of all descripions were destroyed to enable the producers to obtain a payable price for the rest. Even now, supposing conditions continue to improve, that would only mean a market could be found for production which came up to the level of a few years ago. But supposing we continue to grow crops on an ever-increasing scale, where shall we find a market? The grower only uses a very small percentage of his produce. The main difficulty is markets. Subsidising the sugar crop has been tried in England at a cost of £30,000,000 per annum, so that that system does not seem to bring forth satisfactory results. R.