THE UNEMPLOYMENT BILL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21579, 26 February 1932, Page 8

THE UNEMPLOYMENT BILL

MR COATES’S BIG TASK SUSTENANCE FOR EVERYONE (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, February 25. Cabinet has not yet finally decided upon the contents of the Unemployment Bill, which will embrace proposals for an increased wage tax for the purpose of strengthening the position of the Unemployment Relief Fund. It is learned that the Ministry is not unanimous that the tax should rise to a shilling in the £l, which is the figure recently suggested as necessary to meet the growing demands of applicants for relief, but members acknowledge in the lobbies that if the Government is to undertake effective handling of the relief problem during the coming winter a sharp increase in this tax is inevitable. A greater army of unemployed than now exists may be expected to be calling upon the State for sustenance before the winter sets in.

Mr Forbes’s reply to the civil service deputation to-day is regarded as confirmation of the belief that further dismissals as well as wage cuts are unavoidable. Recognising this fact and anticipating generally a difficult winter the Minister in Charge of Unemployment (Mr J. G. Coates) is believed to be making relief provisions to cover the whole of New Zealand on the basis of 70,000 unemployed. It is the aim of Mr Coates to see that everyone out of work is at least provided with the necessaries of life even if work cannot always be allocated.