THE New Zealnd Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1938 UNEMPLOYMENT GROWING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23047, 26 May 1938, Page 12

THE New Zealnd Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1938 UNEMPLOYMENT GROWING

Those who have accepted at their face value the soothing statements of the Minister of Labour on the unemployment position will be shocked at the figures published this morning showing the increasing numbers out of work in Auckland alone. The roll is lengthening at the rate of 25 a day, mostly young, single, ablebodied men. Over 700 are already numbered in this class, in addition to 469 married men. It does not help much to say that the increase is seasonal. After all, what is the season? The country is moving from autumn into winter, into the long dead months when the rural and dependent industries are at their slackest. Hence the outlook for obtaining jobs is all the more hopeless, at least for the single men. The married receive first preference and, while hundreds of them remain unplaced, the prospect for the single is utterly barren. "Work for .them simply does not exist," says the placement officer, Mr. J. R. Elsbury. In the past week he recorded 111 new enrolments, of which 55, or half, were of men under 25 years of age, and 81 under 35. If the public will try to translate these bald figures into the flesh and blood of sons and brothers, nephews and cousins, if they can picture these young fellows in the prime of life and eager to expend their energy and muscle on work, then they will comprehend their feeling of desperation, condemned to what must seem endless weeks of idleness, forced to suffer a slackening of physical and moral vigour, and beholden to the community for the bare living called sustenance. This may not be their first such winter, but it is probably the most blank, with the Labour Department admitting it has not even hope to offer them. Their bitter plight is aggravated because the Government continues to pretend there is no such thing as adversity, that all is prosperity. Hence neither public bodies nor private employers are moved to exert themselves to provide employment. How could it be otherwise while the responsible Minister, Mr. Armstrong, asserts that "the Dominion is back to normal as far as unemployment is concerned." He produces figures showing that the unemployed number only 1 per cent of the population. His latest official return, for April 9, showed only 7215 able-bodied unemployed. Little wonder that the public should consider the emergency ended and that there is no call for the special efforts of the past, especially as Mr. Armstrong is receiving over £5,000,000 a year from wages tax and levy to cope with the problem. If there are so few to provide for and so large a fund in hand, it is scandalous that so many young men in Auckland to-day have nothing to look forward to for months but idling on sustenance. To permit such human deterioration when there should be no need is unpardonable. Either there are a great many more dependent on the unemployment funds than Mr. Armstrong's returns show, or the Minister is laying out the money to very small advantage. The suspicion is growing in many minds that, to make a good showing politically and conceal this bar sinister on the shining shield of prosperity, the Government is covering up the true position. If Huch be the case, then the unemployed are being sacrificed to gain political advantage; they are being denied the public sympathy and practical help that would be evoked were the facts placed fairly before the people, without pretence or manipulation. Admissions may be difficult for a Prime Minister who keeps on trumpeting prosperity and who in 1935 promised to place all the unemployed in work within 12 months of taking office. Nevertheless so pure an idealist should put the welfare of the unfortunate before personal political reputation. It was work Mr. Savage promised and it is work that thousands in New Zealand to-day are vainly seeking. In Mr. Armstrong's last official return, less than one in five of the unemployed were shown as placed in work. About four out of five were receiving sustenance. The much-maligned Coalition Government did much better in this respect. The comparable return in April, 1935, showed that only one in 6ix was on sustenance and four out of five obtained work. Put in another way, 44,000 were placed in work, 17,243 full-time, in April, 1935, while last month Mr. Armstrong showed only 2799 as working. If he were to make as effective an effort as his predecessor, there would not be an able-bodied man, single or married, languishing in idleness on sustenance. The fact is that Mr. Armstrong is making a much poorer attempt at solving an easier problem; being much handicapped by the pretence that the problem is smaller than it actually is. From the placement officer's remarks it appears, moreover, that some of the young men could be absorbed in certain trades if they possessed the requisite skill. Unfortunately the Government seems to have dropped the various schemes designed to enable the lads to qualify. There is not a single constructive element in its unemployment policy, which boils down to passive administration of relief—a policy of palliation, without cure and without end. Such is the discouraging position facing the unemployed, now entering upon their third winter under the Labour Government's era of prosperity*