WAGES UNDER SCHEME 4A

Patea Mail, Volume LII, 9 March 1931, Page 2

WAGES UNDER SCHEME 4A

WHAT AHE THE FACTE ? At a meeting of the New Plymouth Local Employment Committee a protest was made against the amount of -Ms per week which is fixed as the Hoard’s siubsiidy to farmers engaging married men for farm work. It was asserted at a meeting that this was an attempt to firing wages down to a permanently low level, and that no married men could clothe and feed his family on Ms weeky. Those who take up such an attitude deliberately ignore all the facts, which arc:— (1) That abnormal times demand abnormal measures. (2) That the estimated annual revenue from the levy and Government subsidy is £1,200,000. (3) That the registered unemployed total is 27,000. (4) That if this revenue was distributed equally, each man would get approximately £44 10s per annum, or about 17s Id per week. With revenue reduced by £20,000,000 and with enormous unexpected expenliture which the Hawke’s Bay earthquake has made necessary, it is not reasonable to suggest that the country can do more than it is doing for the unemployed. No country in the world is providing work for the workless to the extent that New Zealand is doing, nor are the conditions elsewhere as liberal —the dole in England excepted —and for the sake of New Zealand’s prestige it is hoped it will never be necessary to sanction such payment hero. As to (he payment of 25s per week, this is merely a subsidy on the wages which the farmer may offer, in addition to board and lodging. The wages already paid by farmers under this scheme vary from 25s per week to jinst board and lodging, but there arc few cases in which some amount in money is not paid. Finally, the scheme is mooting a real want in as liberal a manner as finances will allow. The slump in farm produce has thrown many first class farm hands on to the labour market, biiit this scheme has ensured that their services will not be lost to the farming industry. For the time being their families will have some revenue coming in, instead of none, and under the circumstances they might be excused for asking to be saved from their friends, however well-intentioned they mar be.