The Ministerial Gag

NZ Truth, Issue 873, 19 August 1922, Page 1

The Ministerial Gag

Perhaps the most formal report jpre- ' seated to Parliament annh year emanates fnxm the .iabor Department,' I "Which, should "be. capaihle of producing a most interesting document. It. is difficult to extract from this year's report one illuminating "paragraph* yet■wiat -with Tmamplpyinent, the demand 'for Dominion awards, cuts m. wages, im.a Idndrefl \top3cs the Labor' ■ world io-day -is aljve with "irresslng problems, , TPhs Minister of Labor rules Ms department -with, an iron hand and there is 3us£ a suggestion . that he nips ■m *Eh£ \mA sxcyihiDCg that, might blossom into a useful suggestion. He kills initiativei. ■ "Under ' the circumstances ft 'ls not surprising that the secretary's report — the on© intended for publication — shotild contain very litfte more than dry as dust statistics. In the -Labor Department there axe Eom'e Teiy capaTile men who nave made a fuH study of the Labor movement and of the many problems > which are causing concern m JK[ew Zealand to<day. They are tmbiaseol, too, "bnt if Uiey are gagged by the Minister who •would blame the Xabor TJnion secretaries '£or holding: the belief that the Department is a pro—capital organisation? "With the. influence of the present Minister paramount they are probably not far- wrong; but. they- should "blame the Minister and not the individual officers.. It .might so happenthat when an officer lias spent many years* service with the Department he 'becomes tainted. The Labor Department has never had a free hand and shackled as it is to-day the portion of its -work that comes under the public gaze is limited strictly to generalities. Its labor bureaux lack organisation and fMey have even. -failed, to produce reliable statistics as to the number of •unemployed. It has. been suggested, that m the latter connection the organisation is pufposely inefficient because the Government has no desire . to give the' people the -truth, regarding unemployment. Why did the Minister for Labour prohibit the publication of the Dominion totals? Was it because he realised that the figures were incomplete? If they were incomplete they should not have been. If they vrere complete did they reveal too serious a state of affairs, to. be disclosed?, iWhat Is the- answer?, '