“NOT A BAD THING”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17229, 8 April 1930, Page 6

“NOT A BAD THING”

THE DOLE IN ENGLAND UNWISE COMMENTS Regret at the attitude of some New Zealanders who, having journeyed to England, returned with a doleful story of conditions at Home, wa*s expressed by His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner, Mr. L. A. Pa I.? h, when addressing an audience in Wellington. Such comments, said Mr Paish, could do no good, and could only create bad feeling between those in England and those in New Zealand. “We don’t want that,” ho added. “What we want are better relations. Comparing Britain’s unemployment problem with that of Germany and of the United States, Mr. Paish stated that in Germany there were half an mauy people again as there word in the United Kingdom. Germany had 3,000,000 unemployed, and England 1,500,000. The United States had two and a half times the population of the United Kingdom, and had 6,000,000 unemployed.

Having made these comparisons, the speaker intimated that there was no reason to be despondent.

Reference was made to allegations that the unemployed at Home were lazy and were living on the dole, Mr. Mr. Paish assuring his audience that such was not the case. In his opinion, the British worker was by no means lazy, and worked as hard as any other worker in the world.

The dole, •continued the speaker, was constantly being held up against Great Britain. It was true they had a dole, hut some form of payment was essential during the post-war period. One could not see men and women starve just because tliye could not obtain work. Many of them would never be able to secure employment, and had to be kept. Gfreat Britain would be lacking in a sense of decency if she could not do something to keep those unfortunate people from starving. Most of them would be only too pleased to do any work if it were available. It had been said that some

did not want to work, but in reality eases of malingering were very few.

In conclusion, Mr. Paish warned people not to think that the dole was had. He did not want them to take the view that, because unemployment was a had thing, anil the dole was unemployment pay, the dole was a bad thing. That was not true logic. —Dominion.