UNEMPLOYMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1928, Page 8

UNEMPLOYMENT.

There will be general support for the decision of the Government not to be stampeded into any schemes for absorbing all the unemployed in New Zealand without very careful investigation. Admitting that all that has been done by the State, local authorities and private Lenevolenco to relieve those in distress has been but a palliative, the problem still remains. So far as the Labour critics of the Government are concerned, the only definite propositions they have put forward have been a gigantic scheme of public works and a system of insurance against unemployment to which the State, employers and employees should contribute. But, as the Prime Minister pointed out in the House last Tuesday, while insurance may help the unemployed it does nothing to prevent that state arising. As a matter of fact, the experience of Great Britain has been that no system of insurance can stand the strain of general unemployment. Its funds are drained by payments to the wage earners who are out of work and by reason of this fact contributions to the insurance fund are depleted at the very time when they are most needed. The result is that the State must raise its contribution, aud a “dole” is the next step. Once ■ that vicious principle is accepted there is an end to the selfreliance that the inauguration of an insurance fund was intended to create, and, as in England to-day, the problem of the unemployed is made more difficult than ever. Mr. Coates announced that a committee of five, representing both employers and employees, has been set up to inquire into the primary causes of unemployment in New Zealand. The task they have undertaken is no light one, -but, provided the problem is recognised as being an economic and not a political one, the committee should be able to render much service. For the moment conditions in regard to unemployment are less serious than they were during the winter months. While this is satisfactory so far as it goes, it is towards prevention and not palliation that! the inquiry must be addressed.