PLEA FOR UNEMPLOYED

Taranaki Daily News, 28 September 1929, Page 11

PLEA FOR UNEMPLOYED

GOVERNMENT URGED TO ACT IMMEDIATE STEPS DEMANDED. PROPOSALS OF THE UNITED PARTY. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The House of Representatives resumed at 7.30 to-night and went into committee of supply to deal with Impiest Supply Bill (No. 4), providing for appropriations amounting to £2,345,000. Mr. J. S. Fletcher asked the Government" whether it had any constructive scheme to deal with tho pressing problem of unemployment. He said the position would become more serious at the end of the year when hundreds of young people leaving school would be added to the pressure on the labour market. In addition to that, the subsidies which the Government had granted to local bodies for relief works were fast coming to an end. Ho gave the Government every credit for granting those subsidies and also for the endeavour it had made through the State Advances Department to meet the situation. Mr. Fletcher suggested part of the highways fund should be capitalised, and with the money obtained it would be possible to find work for 3000 men on a reading scheme in which labourers, carpenters, boilermakers and lorry drivers would participate. He did not claim this was the best scheme possible,. and he would support a better scheme if it were put forward. Ho wanted the Government to give him an .answer. He would oppose the passage of tho Bill till he received that answer. The vote was put in committee and

carried on the voices, Mr. Fletcher's being the only “no.” Speaking on the second reading of the Bill, Mr. *M. J. Savage also asked the Government what constructive proposals it had to offer. “They will tell us what they have done but some of us have a pretty shrewd idea what they had done,” he said. “They have put 100 men on and taken 105 or 110 off. Ido not say they have done that all the time; there have been rises and falls, but over a period the position is not getting any better.” “DO SOMETHING NOW!” Mr. Savage said the Government had stated it would absorb men through the land settlement scheme, but it would probably state that legislation would be necessary to carry out that scheme. He did not agree this was so. There was machinery at the present time that would enable the policy to be carried out. It was the responsibility of the State to provide work for people’ who were looking for it daily, and he was not going to remain inactive and allow things to go on in the present condition. Unemployment insurance would help the position, but it would not strike at the cause of unemployment. What was the unemployment committee doing? Tho country wanted the Government to do something now. In addition to land settlement there were other ways in which the Government could help to absorb the unemployed, and he mentioned the Morningside tunnel, the Auckland harbour bridge and the Pae-roa-Pokeno railway as works that should be undertaken. Mr. W. D. Lysnar urged that the Government shoulcpsee that the Meat Board functioned property to enable the primary producers to receive fair prices for their exports, that encouragement should be given for the investment of capital in the primary industries, and that nothing should be done to hamper that class of the community. Such a course would go a long way towards a solution of the unemployment problem. He also expressed his approval of the plan formulated by Mr. J. S. Fletcher. Mr. E. J. Howard said he considered the building industry would offer the most suitable means of employing labour, because it set the wheels going in so many directions and was the cause of employing men in a wide range of trades. New. Zealand had drifted into a ■shameful position. • Instead of asking people to come out here to help us to produce we had to erect a fence around the country and bog people not to come lest we be starved to death. He had lost faith in the Government. It was just going on in the same way. All that was required was visualisation of the possibilities of the country and initiative to set the wheels spinning in every direction. It did not require much vision to picture New Zealand supporting 10,000,060 people comfortably housed. Tho trouble rested not with the country but with the administration. ALLEGED DISMISSALS. Mr. J. A. Young raised the question of the dismissal of casual employees in the Post and Telegraph Department at Hamilton. Mr. R. Semple submitted that one of the gravest responsibilities resting on the shoulders of the House to-day was to open the door of opportunity to those people who could not find work. There was something radically wrong with the system which permitted vast wealth on tho one hand while on the other hand there were hundreds of willing workers who could not obtain the means of sustenance for themselves and their families. This session should not close until something had been done for people who were hungry and out of work. There were some means of meeting the situation that he wished to put forward. In the first place he advocated a vigorous policy of settlement of Crown and other lands, including the best proportion of pumice land. Then he called for a road construction scheme in rural districts, together with the extension and widening of main highways. Other suggestions he put forward were the development of a carbonisation plant to utilise the by-products of coal and avoid the waste that existed at the present time; setting up a development commission to inquire into the possibilities of the secondary industries and into methods of wealth production with a view to replacing antiquated by more modern methods; an increase in the school leaving age by one year; a reduction in the old age pension age by five years; revision of working hours with a reduction wherever possible, and the elimination of overtime to provide work for others; State organisation of credit facilities; and a minimum basic wage. The Hon. E. A. Ransom gave some figures relating to employment. Excluding local body men there were GB4 more men employed by the Forestry and Public Works Departments to-day than at the same time last year, and there were 855 more than When the present Government assumed office.

MEN GIVEN EMPLOYMENT. The Minister read a list of men placed on Government and local body works through Government bureaux in the Dominion since April 1, 1929, totalling 7192, of whom 4257 were employed on the former and 2935 on local body works. A considerable number of men had also been engaged in country districts by the Forestry and Public Works Departments direct, and it would be safe to state that 5000 men had been placed since April 1, 1929, on Government works. During the same period 2500 men had left Government relief works of their own accord. The only places where unemployment could be regarded as serious at present were Auckland with 874 registrations, and Christchurch with 630. Arrangements were being made for placing further men on Government works as follows: Auckland 200, Napier 20, Wellington 50, Christchurch 100. The Minister added that the labour bureau at Auckland had difficulty in filling orders for men on road relief works in the Taumarunui district recently owing to men desiring work nearer their homes. - He said it had been complained that the Government was not moving as quickly in the matter of absorbing unemployment as might be desired, but he pointed out that much work it had in mind required the authorisation of Parliament before it could be undertaken. In this respect he referred particularly to railway construction. Then there was the Land Bill, which made wonderful provision for the employment of labour in bringing land into a state suitable for occupation. He looked forward to great development of the mineral deposits on the west coast and of irrigation schemes in Central Otago, OTHERS’ RESPONSIBILITY. Mr. J. G. Coates said unemployment was not Parliament’s responsibility alone. Anyone who followed the progress of the Industrial conference nad.

been gratified at the feeling manifested there°by employer and employee in regard to all questions affecting unemployment. It had been anticipated’last summer that the conference would have been called together again next summer, but the general election had made that difficult. However, the conference should have' been called so that the House might have had a recommendation before it on the unemployment question. He preferred to treat unemployment as a national .rather than a party question. Parliament looked for recommendations from the industrial world because statistics and records were available, and those in close'association with the various branches of industry possessed valuable knowledge. At round-table conferences he had found the worker was always ready to admit what was possible and reasonable. Mr. Fletcher said the reply of the Minister of Public Works did. not* satisfy him. He hoped the Prime Minister would state, not what it was intended to do in the dim and distant future, but what it intended to do “right here and now.” . . Mr. D. Jones appealed for a decision in the matter of the education policy to enable the. building of schools to be expedited, thereby absorbing surplus labour. He also expressed opposition to the proposal to cut* up land surrounding the Prime Ministerial residence in Tinakori Road. Replying to the debate Sir Joseph Ward said he was prepared to do his duty but he was not going to be forced into doing anything. JLeft Bitting.)