MILLIONS SPENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18254, 24 November 1933, Page 7

MILLIONS SPENT

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF BOARD’S ANNUAL REPORT MORE HOPEFUL OUTLOOK (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. All the evidences point to the fact that saturation level has been reached in the Dominion unemployment position, states the annual report of the Unemployment Board submitted to the House yesterday by the lion. A. Hamilton, Minister of Employment, “and,’’ it adds hopefully, “ilny Change in the unemployment situation should now be for the better. The financial burden of unemployment is very fully and frankly disclosed m the report. It* shows how. the cost to the State has mounted rapidly, commencing with ‘a total of £144,240 in 1926-27, and reaching £4.097.833 last year. In 192627 State funds were provided only thi'bligh the Public Works Department and State Forest Service, then in the following years, subsidies to local bodies came into operation, reaching! a peak of £116,767 in 1930-31, after which , the unemploynient fund became the principal means of expenditure, local bodies subsidies having dropped last year to £216, ile the public works fund, which had expended £1.249X00 in 1930-31, contributed £397.632, and the unemployment fund £3,687,897. EXPENDITURE DETAILED How last year’s millions were spent is shown in the following table : £ Farming .schemes 277,764 Building scheme 49,627 Gold prospecting 70,206 Camp schemes 180,483 Food, clothing and rations ... 58,667 Sustenance payment 12,960 Scheme No. 5 2,937,991 Since 1926-27, it is shown that the State has expended in unemployment relief £11,930,061, an impressive figure which does not include the large expenditure by local bodies, and tiie private relief efforts. Administration costs, including £6500 paid to the Post Office for collections, amounted last year to £107,143, equalling 1.66 per cent, of the turnover. It is estimated that at least- 425,000 males are paying the general unemployment levy, but apart from this source of income there is the emergency charge, which produced the following last year:— £ Charge on salary-'or wages ... 2,471,028 Charge on other income ... 1,120,404

Total 3,591,432 There has been a marked increase in applications for postponement of or exemption from payment of levies, and the report states that the value of partial exemptions granted last year was £33.000. The board has had to-deal with 5200 applications of this character. In October, 1932, inspectors were detailed to investigate payment of wages tax and the charge on “other income.” They found that the majority of the breaches disclosed were due to ignorance of the law BOARD’S SCHEMES OF WORK Every method of utilising the unemployed is described fully in the report, and it is seen that the farm subsidy schemes were at the end of September, employing 4703 men, and that tlio year’s expenditure was £217,047, Tho community value of this scheme is demonstrated by the estimate that the work involved m land improvement will make provision for carrying the following additional stock: Sheep, 226,017; cattle, 46.145; poultry, 500; pigis, 204; horses, 10.

Subsidies to check the rabbit pest were suspended in June, 1933, when the prices of skins reached a payable • point, tnrt the scheme has been revived on an amended basis following a drop in prices. Approximately 2,570 workers have been given employment in this way. Camp schemes for road work, land drainage and other classes of developmental work, including afforestation, were employing; 3853 men last September, and the State Forest Service was able last year to plant 30,000 acres. Gold prospecting lias become a major outlet for relief workers, and the report points out that one of the best features is that through it, nearly 10CO men have been transferred from relief work in the four main centres, where rebel work in general is not of such a nature that the men can take much interest in it. Gold production has shown a substantial increase, and a proportion of this value is being returned to the unemployment fund, these receipts being substantial. The system lias grown rapidly, for the men mining or prospecting for gold in September, 1932, numbered 1400. but a year later the total had readied 3900. THE BUILDING SUBSIDY It is considered probable that when all applications under the building subsidy scheme have been dealt with, the total value of works authorised will fall little below £6,000,000. When building was normal, there were £2,815 persons employed in the industry, and but for the subsidy scheme, less than 4000 would have been working in May, 1932. The present scheme has increased the total to over 6000, and the subsidies are estimated to include a wages cost of over £4,000,000. The board has made grants to local women’s committees for the relief of unemployment among women and girls to the extent of over £16,000 last year. The registrations of women arid girls totalled, at the end of July, 975, of whom 466 had been previously employed as domestics, and 211 had been factory employees. Boy unemployment committees in the yarious centres are, it is stated, doing exceptionally good work in this sphere, and last year they placed 4458 boys in positions. The board’s issue of boots to relief workers meant the placing of orders among 19 New Zealand makers for 64,194 pairs of boots, and at the end of September, 48,916 pairs bad been distributed. Another form of relief has been the distribution of meat through relief organisations, who last year distributed 16,0C0 carcases. A survey of the class of work undertaken through the board's agency shows that on September 30, 2605 men were employed full time on reproductive work the land, another 1095 on road, railway and local bodv work, leaving only 45.0UJk;men who were being employed on rationed work under scheme No. 5. Unemployed workers in one year have completed 1882 miles of dray roads, 4320 acres of bushfelliii ,r - and 120,887 acres of scrub-cutting, besides other useful work.