UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF BILL.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 August 1930, Page 8

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF BILL.

When the leader of the Labour I’arty, Mr. 11. E. Holland, was delivering his pre-sessional addresses ,to the electorate he devoted a good deal of attention to the question of unemployment and its relief. One point received particular ejnphasie. It was that some scheme of unemployment insurance must be evolved, to which employees should contribute as well as employers and the State. Mr. Holland was eloquent upon the need for such a system in order that funds might be available for the relief of the unemployed and that those receiving such relief might do so without any loss of self-respect or the discomfort of thinking they were in receipt of charity. The Unemployment •Bill that is now under consideration contains the contributory element Mr. Holland advocated, but, ostensibly because it is universal in its application, he and his party condemn the financial clauses of the Bill. They suggest a graduated charge, whatever that may mean, or that all the funds necessary for the relief of unemployment could be obtained by an increase in the income tax. In other words a condition which Messrs Holland and Co. declare in" one breath is a national calamity they maintain in the next must be treated with class legislation of the most distinct type. If the Labour Party sees inequity in the universal levy its duty is to show a better way than by inflicting fre-ah injustice on a section of a the community that is already overloaded with taxation. Mr. Holland and his followers seem to overlook the fact that the -funds raised by the general levy are to be subsidised by the State,, should the Bill become law. That subsidy can only come out of the national purse, to which income tax payers are certainly being asked to contribute their share. Indeed the demands the Bill in its present form makes upon the national finances constitutes one of the gravest objections to the addition of such a piece of experimental legislation to the Statute Book. Th© only conditions that could justify th© further drain upon the country’s resources are that the burden should be spread as widely as possible, and that the expenditure thus provided for should be reproductive. The Government has made its suggestions. Any amendment of these must be in the nature of widening rather than reducing the sphere from whjeh financial support for the scheme can be ©ought.