The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1937. Mr Armstrong And Unemployment

Southland Times, Issue 23311, 22 September 1937, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1937. Mr Armstrong And Unemployment

In his speech in the Address-in-Reply debate the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes wisely dissociated himself from those arbitrary critics who have attacked the practice of sending Ministers of the Crown overseas. Members of the Labour Party when they were in Opposition would never tire of making these attacks; but that is no reason why the present Opposition should not set a different example. Mr Forbes reminded the House that contacts abroad widened a Minister’s outlook and vision; and there is no doubt that in normal circumstances this benefit amply repays the country for what is, after all, in relation to the national Budget, only a trifling expenditure. But there are right times and wrong times for a Minister to be away from his duties, just as there are reasonable, and unreasonable, periods for him to stay away. The homecoming of the Minister of Employment (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) must prompt the comment that he has been away at the wrong time. There was no particular reason why he should go, as there was in the case of both Mr Savage and Mr Nash; and he went when his fullest efforts were needed to help improve the unemployment situation in New Zealand.

Mr Armstrong has returned to Auckland with the same promise on his lips that he made to the electors two years ago: “We don’t want unemployment here and we are going to clear it up.” He has the hardihood to reiterate that promise at a time when the number of unemployed> in New Zealand is actually increasing, when the number on sustenance has reached record proportions, and when the reduction that has been achieved over the last two years has been achieved largely by the artificial stimulant of heavy State expenditure on public works and the addition of some thousands to the Civil Service. The Government is not expected to eliminate unemployment altogether; but it is expected to take measures, and create conditions, which will enable unemployment to be reduced at least to the extent to which it has been reduced in other countries. We recently quoted official figures showing the steady and continuous fall in unemployment in New South Wales this year. Over Australia as a whole the level of unemployment is now not appreciably higher than it was in the pre-depression year,. 1929; in New Zealand there are today 10 times as many unemployed as there were in 1929. The New Zealand Herald, Auckland, has prepared some further comparisons from official returns of registered unemployed in New Zealand, Britain, and the State of Victoria:

How Mr Armstrong can view the position disclosed in these figures as complacently as he does, it is impossible to understand. “I can say we do not know anything about unemployment in New Zealand,” he remarked at Auckland. “Go into any country you like and you will find we have less unemployment here than anywhere else. Furthermore, no country has done as much during past years to combat the problem as we have done in New Zealand.” If the last sentence was intended to be a tribute to the Coalition Government it was to some extent deserved, for at the time when unemployment was at its peak the Coalition did make what must be recognized as a genuinely brave attempt to deal with it. But Mr Armstrong’s other beliefs are mere delusions. The level of unemployment in New Zealand today is high in relation to other countries, and the Labour Government has done little to reduce it. In Victoria one person in every 112 of population is out of work; in Labour’s “paradise” the ratio is one in every 40. On the day after the General Election of 1935 Mr Savage declared that “instead of looking for relief works we are going to put men into their places in primary and secondary industries.” Other countries have succeeded in doing just that; but Mr Savage has not. On the contrary, his Government has created conditions which make it almost impossible for any large number of the unemployed to be reabsorbed into industry. And while those conditions last—heavy taxation, high costs, everincreasing restrictions —there will be no cure for unemployment in this country.

Aug. 1932 July 1937 Unemployed in N.Z. Victoria Britain 2,859,828 1,379,459 56,332 37,546 61,422 16,494 Decrease 18,786 44,928 1,480,369 Per cent. 33 73 52