UNEMPLOYMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22371, 19 September 1934, Page 8

UNEMPLOYMENT

PERIOD OF NINE MONTHS

A GENERAL IMPROVEMENT

REPORT BY THE BOARD

(From; Our Parliamentary Reporter)

WELLINGTON, September IS

Even if the present rate of the reabsorption of men into industry is maintained it will not be until 1940 that the unemployed registration figures fall to the 1928 level, states the annual report of the Unemployment Board, which was tabled in the House of Representatives to-day. The report is' for the period of nine months 1 ended June, compared with the period of 12 months ended in September, covered in the previous report. For that reason and for the reason that many interim statements on the unemployment position have been made, most of the figures cited are robbed of much significance, but the tenor of the report indicates an improvement in the general situation. It is stated that any changes which have occurred in the unemployment situation during the past year have been for the better.

During the period under review the board has vigorously pursued a policy of encouraging the employing authorities in industry and local Government bodies to provide additional full-time employment at standard rates of wages. The most successful of the experiments tried was the No. 10 building subsidy scheme. From a position of almost complete inactivity >n April last year the building industry experienced a mild boom during the latter part of 1933, and the improvement in employment as a result of this scheme was not confined merely to the tradesmen and labourers actually employed on subsidised building jobs. The renewed activity in building opened up avenues of employment covering a very wide field. Shortly after the commencement of the scheme No. 10 there began a steady decline in the numbers on the unemployment register who were receiving intermittent relief, the figures under this heading during the first half of 1934, falling lower than at any period in the proceeding two years. Simultaneously with the renewed activity in the building industry has been the encouraging tendency for local bodies to seek out some permanent work justifying the use of loan money, and with assistance from the Unemployment Fund by way of subsidy, provision has been made for a substantial number of full-time works at standard wages as an alternative to scheme No. 5 work on a rationed basis.

It is not suggested by the board that the experience of the past nine mouths is an indication that the progress of reabsorption into industry will continue at the same rate without new efforts and new experiments until the problem of unemployment in New Zealand is solved. Even if this rate of progress were maintained it would not be until 1940 that the registration figures of unemployed would return to the level of the 1928 year, when a special committee was set up to investigate and report on the unemployment position. It is on this account that the board has set aside £250,000 from its fund to be used as an aid to the development of new industries. It is not one of the board’s functions to initiate new industries or to control industries. _ The board, in taking this action, is seeking the co-operation and assistance of industrialists. It appears that the best results will be obtained if initiative in the matter of expanding secondary industries is taken by those who are specially trained in industry. If, however, there is a failure ou the part of this section of the community to meet the present' difficult position it seems inevitable that new experiments will have to be tried. In the meantime the board is exploring every possible avenue for stimulating the reabsorption of unemployed into the existing industries. The principle hitherto adopted by the board of requiring work to be performed in exchange for relief granted is now presenting great difficulty. Had the depression been an ordinary trade cycle there is little doubt that for New Zealand conditions the method of providing work through local bodies in exchange for relief would have much to commend it. Despite the criticism levelled against much of the work done under certain schemes, the board still confidently maintains that at least 50 per cent, of the necessary expenditure on relief to unemployed has been salvaged in the form of permanent assets. In many parts of the country it is still possible to administer relief through these channels to advantage. It is in the- more populous areas where the numbers of the uneniployed are large, and where the type of work suited to scheme No. 5 is becoming scarce, that the greatest difficulty is being experienced. This is producing two results, both of which are objectionable. Either local bodies in these areas are proposing to carry out under scheme 5 works which ought to be done at ordinary standard rates and financed from their own funds, or being unable to provide work of value sufficient to warrant overhead costs are pressing the board for some contribution towards the costs of materials and overhead. During the past year it has been necessary, therefore, in the main centres to substitute sustenance payments without, work for some of the relief jobs carried out under scheme* 5. This has mainly been confined to workers over 50 years of age and those who are unfitted for manual work provided under scheme 5.

Much has been done during the year further to stimulate employment in developmental work on farms. Additional assistance has been granted also to the flax and kauri gum industries. The board’s work in encouraging gold mining and prospecting has been vigorously prosecuted during the year, and steps are being taken to widen the scope ,of activity'in this industry.

RELIEF MEASURES

COST TO THE STATE STEADY GROWTH IN EXPENDITURE. (From Our Parliamentary Reporter' WELLINGTON, September 18. The provision of unemployment relief measures in New Zealand since 1927 has cost the State a total of £16,091,2(56, according to the annual report of the Unemployment Board tabled in the House of Representatives to-day. The total expenditure in 1920-27 was £144,240 — by 1933-34 this had increased to £4,674,283. The steady growth in annual expenditure is shown by the following figures:—

1927- 482,221 1928- 802,709 1929- 1.415,701 1930- 1,783,356 1931- 3.204,001 1932- 4,184,755 1938-34 4,674.283 The expenditure through the Public Works Department, which reached the peak of £1,249,446 in 1930-31, has gradually fallen to £355,091 for the last year, concurrently with the increase in expenditure through direct unemployment relief schemes from £313,209 in 1930-31 to £4,130,686 in 1933-34.

The money spent through the State Forest Service amounted to £185,400 in 1929-90, but only to £2OOO last year. Subsidies to local bodies, £116.768 in the puafi year 1030-31, fell to £216 in 193233, and to nothing in 1933-34.

THE LATEST REGISTRATIONS

MARKED DECREASE ON LAST YEAR

(Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON, September IS.

The Unemployment Board's latest return of the numbers of men receiving assistance from the Unemployment Fund at September 1 reveals an increase of 501 in the total' assisted as compared with the total for the previous month. There is, however, a substantial decrease of 11.008, when the present total of 03,012 is compared with the corresponding total at September 2, 1933. The number of