UNEMPLOYMENT

Otago Witness, Issue 2921, 9 March 1910, Page 24

UNEMPLOYMENT

LONDON, March 2

Replying to a deputation from the Parliamentary Committee of the Labour Congress, the Right Hon. S. C. Buxton deprecated as unreasonable the suggestion that national insurance should be confined to trade unionists. This demand, if pressed, would be fatal to the introduction of the system. Some trades were unorganised, and really required the assistance of national insurance more than organised labour. Any bill must be impartial, as it would be experimental. He appealed to trade unionists for generous and benevolent sympathy and cooperation in dealing with the great question of unemployment.

March 3

Mr John Burns, made a sympathetic reply to a deputation urging the selection of unemployed with an aptitude for agricultural work, and training them, and, after a successful trial, settling them and their families for two years on small holdings connected with a labour colony. . Dr Paton, of Nottingham, the originator of the deputation, suggested that a portion of the development fund might be

applied to the establishment of the colony. Lord Carrington said he considered it would be important if men with agricultural experience, instead of drifting to the towns, were enabled to return to the country.