UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21430, 3 September 1931, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —After reading your article on. the “ Future of Unemployment ” in last Saturday’s issue, I would like to bring to your notice the effect of the No. 4a scheme in country districts. Instead of relieving unemployment it has simply increased it Why? Because every year the fanners have had to do a certain amount of scrub cutting, gorse grubbing and cutting, etc., the labour for which was divided among local labourers. Now, however, since the 4a scheme has been in operation, the farmers simply get cheap labour from the unemployment bureau, often at no more cost than the workman’s food, and at most at the cost of only a few shillings per week. No fault could be found with farmers who are themselves in difficulty taking advantage of a cheap labour scheme, but it is a shame that well-off men should do such a shabby thing—often bringing outside labourers into districts where all the local labourers have been forced to go on the No. 6 scheme. In many cases they do not feed the men at all—simply give married men £2 5s per week, out of which the men have to provide means tp get to work—often a number of miles. The 4a scheme has also had the effect of bringing wages down to mere slavery pittances when a few days’ work is given apart from the unemployment scheme, I know of cases where farmers are paying 0s or 7s per clay, and they point out that is better than anything else that is being offered in these times, that - is, better than work under the No. 4a scheme for a few shillings per week, or under the No. 5 scheme for two or three days per week according to the circumstances of the men.

The, 4a scheme has simply taken away ' the chances which the' casual country labourer had of getting work, has compelled numbers of men to go on the No. 5 scheme, and has reduced wages to a miserable few shillings for whatever few days work might be obtained. If the 4a scheme were done away with, and the well-to-do fanners were made to clear their scrub-covered and gorse-in-' fested lands, or to .give them up .as, being lands which they cannot work them-< selves to advantage, the effect would be* to. relieve the; situation more than the. operation of the; scheme does.—-I am, etci, Faib Wages Fob Fair. Work. ‘