The Daily News THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1928. UNEMPLOYMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 February 1928, Page 8

The Daily News THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1928. UNEMPLOYMENT.

It is unfortunately a fact that there is a considerable amount of unemployment in New Plymouth and district, and that the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board is finding the burden of relief one that is getting beyond its powers. It was emphasised at the meeting on Tuesday evening to consider ways and means of providing relief that it was not charity but work that was desired by those who are now unemployed. The meeting very wisely left to a representative committee details of the employment and the conditions under which it will be offered. An appeal for funds is to be made to enable relief work to be put in hand. Last year there was a good response to a similar appeal, but if unemployment is to become a chronic condition it is obviously impossible for a charitably inclined section of the community to provide the means to relieve the distress. Something of a more comprehensive nature is called for. This is summer, when generally there is work for all genuinely anxious to undertake it, but the farming community have been so hard hit that they are simply unable to pay the ruling wages, preferring to help each other in garnering the crops, etc., and to postpone the effecting of permanent improvements that cannot be managed by their own families. The condition of the rural community is reflected in the towns. There is less demand for goods and services, and reductions in staffs have followed. On top of this, there has recently been a marked reduction in the building trade, which, with its allied branches, has for years been responsible for a good deal of employment. This may revive again when money is cheaper and costs generally are lower, but meantime many in the building trades are without work. What obtains in New Plymouth unfortunately obtains in other parts of New Zealand. Things in Auckland, it would seem, were never worse, over three thousand being on the unemployed registers of the unions. So that the problem, is a national one, and must be dealt with along national lines. Last winter the Government subsidised local bodies for work that gave relief to the unemployed, which then had not assumed the proportions it lias to-day. The Prime Minister says the Government has plans in readiness to cope with it. The time has arrived for him to announce their nature and put them into foree. It is to be hoped they will be something more than expedients and palliatives. At the same time, thoughtful people will appreciate the difficulties of the Government in finding a solution for the problem. Economically our industrial system is quite unsound, and the present condition of the labour market is but a symptom of that unsoundness. We are being called upon to pay the price of our infraction of the economic laws, and until we deal with the root of the trouble we will never get very far. Unfortunately there is no one on the political horizon at present with the ability or the courage to stand up and tell the country what is wrong with it, or devise means for altering or abolishing the present inelastic system of wages control. Only economic pressure will awaken the public to a realisation of the hard facts that as a country we must work harder and do with less than we have been accustomed to in the past', and that the wide disparity between the earnings of the producer and the worker in the sheltered industries must be reduced before prosperity can be permanently established.

compromises. The report of this’ commission can almost be given now. There will be some alteration of the Act, but the essential features of compulsory arbitration will remain. As to the scope of the inquiry, it is laid down that the commission must consider the effects of the present system on the welfare of the country, the interests of employers, and the interests of the workers. What, it may be asked, are the interests of the country ? Who is to determine the interests of the country? This, in itself, is a large question, and provides plenty of room for compromise. Then, again, there is the problem of the effect of the present system on primary industry. This, as we know, has been debated time and again, and it has been pointed out that our primary producers have to depend on export prices which vary considerably. They cannot pass any rise in price in the cost of production on to the consumer. But they .they have to face any rise in cost that Is passed on to them by local manufacturers. The export prices represent the income of the country, and. because this income has fallen to such an extent that the primary producers have not the money to spend. Hence the volume of unemployment, which in Auckland alone is alleged to be over two thousand. Even if it is half the number it is serious enough. The problem has got to be faced, but not on a basis of compromise which is w'hat the Parliamentary Committee is aiming at. We do not want interests' that are so closely related with the Arbitration Act to sit on the committee. If this subject were discussed by statisticians, actuaries, bankers, accountants and similarly interested people, then we should get some sane conclusion, but we will not get it from this proposed committee as suggested.