THE UNEMPLOYED

Southland Times, Issue 22295, 10 April 1934, Page 6

THE UNEMPLOYED

PUBLIC MEETING TIMARU CITIZENS’ RESOLUTIONS POLICY CRITICIZED (Per United Press Association.) Timaru, April 9. About 700 citizens were present at a public meeting to-night called by the Unemployment Committee to discuss the unemployment problem. Representative speakers discussed the matter from all angles. The following resolution was carried unanimously: “That this public meeting of Timaru citizens, having heard a discussion of unemployment problems by a number of prominent representative speakers is convinced of the deplorable inadequacy of the present allocations for relief and also that the present policy of providing free labour to local bodies and State departments is closing avenues of legitimate employment and tending to perpetuate unemployment. We urgently appeal to the Government and the Unemployment Board to devise means sufficient to place the unemployed and their dependents beyond the reach of the dire poverty and distress at present prevailing. We further call upon the people of New Zealand to support us by holding similar public meetings wherever possible for the discussion of the present tragic position with a view to making the appeal general and insistent. Believing that constructive criticism is called for, we suggest to the Government that if it is unable to devise ways for the reabsorption of the unemployed at reasonable rates of pay, immediate consideration be given to the desirability of extending the principle of subsistence payments where work is not available and that the unemployment funds be augmented, if necessary, by a steeply graduated income tax. We invite similar concrete proposals from other centres.”