PLANNED EMPLOYMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22294, 21 June 1934, Page 6

PLANNED EMPLOYMENT

The danger, which is apprehended by the Rotary Clubs in the Dominion, that the present system of relief may have a tendency to perpetuate unemployment in our midst cannot be ignored. The system was, of course, hurriedly designed and, at the time at which it was instituted, it had the merit that it provided the means whereby relief might be promptly afforded wherever it was required. As a temporary expedient it served its purpose reasonably well. But it would be absurd to think of it as providing a solution of the problem of unemployment. The Unemployment Board has itself made various departures from its hastily devised original scheme, and each of these has possessed advantages in the sense that it lias been directed to the utilisation of labour in productive directions. The innovation, which has been most bitterly attacked—that of the building subsidy—has been really of distinct value since it has provided for the employment of skilled; artisans at their own trades. But the need for the planning, as is urged by the Rotary Clubs, of work of a constructive nature must be realised by every person who has given serious consideration to the economic evil which, four years after it became acute, still excites concern and demands ameliorative treatment. It is a satisfactory circumstance that, in various parts of the Dominion, evidence is being supplied of a concentration of thought by groups of individuals upon plans for the solution of a regrettable problem. The fact that it is,a less grave problem than it was, as is illustrated by the continuous decline this year in the number of registrations of unemployed, docs not mitigate the necessity for the formulation of constructive plans for the absorption of unemployed labour in pursuits that will at once offer the hope of permanent employment to those engaged in them and contribute to the development of the national resources of the Dominion and to the extension of established but imperfectly organised industries. The Unemployment Board should welcome, as doubtless it does welcome, the consideration which unofficial organisations are bestowing upon the problem and should seek their co-operation, to the fullest possible extent, in the planning of measures that will prove of service in a scheme of national recovery.