UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1929, Page 13

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

MINISTRY’S GREAT EFFORTS DEMANDS MUST RE REASONABLE. STR JOSEPH WARD'S PROTEST. (By Wire.—Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Last Night. A declaration that the Government is doing everything it possibly can to cope with unemployment, and that it was hoped to do much more when the Financial Statement has been presented, was made by the Prime Minister in the House to-day. Sir Joseph Ward said members of the House were showing a tendency to speak as if the Government had an unlimited purse at its disposal, and as if every local body which was troubled with unemployment had a right to demand that it should receive something like £25,000. Mr. F. Langstone: Who else can they go to? Sir Joseph Ward: “The country has not provided the Government with the means of employing everybody.” Members ought to speak a little more plainly to those who were urging them to find employment for them. There was an incessant cry from those who were dismissed on the completion of jobs for the Government to find work for them immediately, but tho Government could not do that. It was absolutely impossible.

It was not fair to say the Government was not doing its best to meet the position. It was finding work in all directions and yet there were members who spoke as if tho Government were doing nothing. “As a matter of fact,” said tho Prime Minister, “we are doing a very great deal, and we are prepared to do a great deal more. It is not fair for local bodies to ask the Government for a £1 for £1 subsidy at a time when unemployment is rife. It is impossible to give it.“ In dealing with unemployment we have to take a rational view. We have done the best we can to meet all cases. At the present time we have men demanding work as soon as a job is finished, before we have time to turn round, and before we know whether fresh works can be put in hand. We cannot do impossibilities. As soon as I get the Financial Statement before the House I hope to find employment for a great many more men.” Mr. D. G. Sullivan: Get on with the South Island main trunk.

Sir Joseph Ward: Yes, we will do that. There is no question about that. I hope to be able to put 2000 or 3000 men on that work.