THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1930. CLAIMANTS FOR RELIEF.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21214, 20 December 1930, Page 12

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1930. CLAIMANTS FOR RELIEF.

There is no reason to doubt that the v resolution adopted by the Otago Hospital Board requesting the Government'to take immediate steps to prevent unemployed persons from Australia entering New Zealand in the hope of securing work calls attention to ‘ a. feature in the general position as regards unemployment and its relief which calls for official intervention. The Minister of Public Works informed the deputation from the Chamber jof Commerce in this city a few days ago that if these people from Australia expected to get employment on relief works they would be disappointed, The grounds upon which Mr Taverner'' was able to" offer this assurance were not indicated by him. It would be satisfactory if it could be believed that they were wholly well-founded. The Unemployment Act provides that every male person of twenty years of age and upwards who arrives in New Zealand after the commencement of the Act, with the intention of residing in the country, shall be. liable to all instalments of the levy that become due after the date of his arrival, and registration under the Act is required within one month. If numbers of the unemployed class from Australia come to New Zealand, and pay the levy, they are presumably entitled to claim to be recipients of the benefits provided for under the Act to meet the case of those whose position complies with the statutory stipulations. While it is most desirable that this community should do its best to look after its own unemployed, there is certainly no reason why it should be called upon to provide for the unemployed of other countries. The volume of unemployment in New Zealand is quite sufficient for the community to handle at the present time, without there being any accession to it from outside sources. Under the conditions in which relief work is being found for unemployed labour at the present time the country is incurring a monetary penalty of no negligible kind in that it is not getting value for what it is paying. The Minister of Labour stated a few days ago that the Government was receiving only 70 per cent, .value for the money spent on relief works. According to the figures of the Acting Prime Minister it is costing the country £6 a week for every man engaged on relief works. Clearly, while this is hard enough upon the community in application to its own unemployed, it represents a cost against which the taxpayer should be carefully safeguarded in respect of persons who are not bona" fide residents of the Dominion, but newcomers attracted to these shores by the provision which the Government is making for unemployment relief.