BUSINESS AFFAIRS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 March 1928, Page 9

BUSINESS AFFAIRS

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. r • THE UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM. The quarterly meeting of .the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce was held last night, Mr. C. H. Weston presiding over an attendance of 17 member©. Reporting on the work accomplished by the council since the last quarterly mi ting, the secretary said that the president had made representations to the postmaster and a Post and Telegraph Department official with th© object of having an Improvement effected in the New Plymouth telephone system, particularly in regard to long distance calls. A sympathetic hearing had been given the president, and the matter had been Investigated. The council was of th© opinion that conditions had improved as a result.

The question of a proposed change in the name of the port of New Plymouth had been discussed, and it had been unanimously agreed that the name should remain as it was.

A draft of the proposed Bill for dealing with unemployment had been received by the chamber for consideration by members. With reference to unemployment, Mr. W. J. Freeth stated that as a primary producer he was satisfied that unless a scheme was gone on with the dairy industry would go under. A perusal of any lists of unemployed would show that it was not farmers that were out of work. He would be very pleased if the chamber would keep at the Government and get something done so that labour for farms eould be procured. If only the unemployed could be persuaded out on to farms during th© essential times, and would milk the cows, th© farmers would assuredly pay the wages. Mr. H. Cocker thought that the root of the whole problem lay at the high schools. He found that farmers were impressing upon their boys going to the high schools not to go back on the farms, but to get positions in towns. He had recently met one man who refused to give a contribution to the unemployment fund on the grounds that there were a number of young men in town who were out of work and simply would not go into the country, where they could find work if they wanted. Voices: Hear, hear! Mr. Cocker said he thought it was th© duty of the Chamber of Commerce to try to do something in the matter. Mr. Benoni White considered that the only solution was further land settlement. Group settlement on the small holding system seemed to bo the best kind of settlement. The matter of electoral boundaries was brought up by Mr. Freeth, .who objected to his district (Pukearuhe) being included in th© Stratford electorate, with which it had no community of interest, ft was suggested that he should make representations on the matter prior >to the next sitting of the Electoral Boundaries Commisson. MEETING OF THE COUNCIL. Prior to th© quarterly meeting, th© council of the chamber met. Present: Messrs. C. H. Weston (president), S. F. Burgess, C. Carter, J. H. Holm, J. McNeill, G. Fraser, J. R. Cruiekshank, W. J. Penn, T. C._ List, B. E. S. Bradie, ©nd L. M. Moss. An apology was received from Messrs. A. R. Thompson, J. McLeod and P. E. Stainton. A request from the Canterbury Cham* ber of Commerce that support be given to a resolution to the effect that the Associated Banks be approached and asked to reduce the bank rate as from April 1 next, in view of the fact that the adverse course of the trade of the Dominion has been checked, was acceded to. In regard to schoolboy immigration, th© Under-Secretary for the Department of Immigration (Mr. 11. D. Thomson) stated in a letter that the restricted policy would remain in force until March 31, 1928, at which date there was likely to be a further extension. Public schoolboy parties had been suspended since last May, and there seemed little likelihood that this class of migration would be resumed before the end of the present year. The question would come up for consideration by th© Government in April or May next.