UNEMPLOYMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20966, 4 March 1930, Page 8

UNEMPLOYMENT.

COMMITTEE’S RECOMMENDS , TIONS. j STATEMENT BY MR T. SHAILER WESTON. (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, March 3. Interviewed to-day concerning the recommendations of the Unemployment : Committee, Mr T. Shailer Weston made the following statement, and in making it said he was speaking, not as president of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation. The Advisory Board of the federation had not yet considered the report, nor had the executive committees of the various associations. He was not speaking either as a politician but simply as an individual.

In the first place, he had been reluct-, autly driven to the conclusion that, even though the Dominion was a young country with some material resources as yet comparatively undeveloped, unemployment was likely to continue for some years. The gumfields, sawmills, and bushfelling camps no longer were the outlet they had been before the war for men out of work. More machinery and improved business methods and the number of women employed in business had also meant restricting the 'avenues for men. Above all, the inevitable tendency towards a continuance and general fail in prices, which must continue for some years, meant a very deadening influence on trades and businesses of all sorts. Facts had to be faced. Men out of work and those dependent upon them could not be allowed to starve. The problem was to find the best and most economical solution. Above all, if the present standard of living, whether of the worker, the farmer, the professional man, the trader or the manufacturer, was to be maintained, the cost of relief must be most carefully watched. On two points the commission was to be congratulated. First, it had recognised that the question was a national one, to be dealt with by a committee of men representing all sections of the community and not by a particular political party. No political party in any country in the world, whatever its hopes, had as yet solved this problem. Its difficulties would be better appreciated if ' discovered and realised by a national committee. If such a committee, for instance, found from practical experience that unemployment must not be made so attractive as to draw labour from ordinary avenues of employment, its opinion would no doubt carry more weight with all sections of the community. Such a committee should have assistance from all Government departments open to it, but in its administrations it should be as far as possible free from Government interference.

Secondly, as to the finance required, it was better to put this on a systematic basis. Everyone was concerned in the problem. The poll tax suggested meant less than 3d per week for women and 4?.d per week for males over 18. Most men and women would gladly contribute voluntarily to this amount. This provided onchalf of the funds and the other half would be found by a special income tax levy and a corresponding land- tax levy and finally a subsidy from the Consolidated Eund. This' might mean a £1 or even a £3 a week contribution by the more fortunate, yet even these contributors would do so willingly if satisfied of the necessity of the appeal and the judicious expenditure of the funds raised. By keeping the unemployment relief fund distinct in this way and by providing that everyone should make some contribution, however small, the whole country would be interested in its administration and would know at once what the relief was actually costing at present. Unemployment relief was costing the Dominion' over £1,000,000 a year, -and this amount was steadily growing. No one knew the exact figures, as they were to some extent obscured by being part of loan expenditure. It is true the scheme entailed additional and special taxation, but the amount secured in this .way should mean corresponding relief for the Consolidated Fund, and- unless the Government required that increased revenue for other purposes should be counter-balanced by •an equivalent decrease in general taxation.

The commission .was entitled to great credit for the thought and work put into the inquiry and its recommendations, even-though unpalatable to some,, should be' given a trial. Certainly the national committee should not be content merely to set up a system of sustenance payments. Their great aim will be to discuss and develop avenues of employment for surplus labour - available when other avenues are slack.