UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1930, Page 9

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

OPPOSITION TO PROPOSALS. OTHER SOLUTIONS SUGGESTED. • \ Some considered objections to the Unemployment Bill now before Parliament have been made in a statement forwarded by the Auckland Provincial Employers’ Association to Reform and United members of Parliament. It was contended that the official figures did not justify the assumptionthat unemployment in New Zealand had become a permanent feature in economic life or had reached a stage at which it could not be adequately dealt with by the Government with the machinery at its disposal. That could be done probably with reorganisation and more close co-ordination but without the necessity for setting up another State department or board as suggested, and without resorting to the specialised form of taxation as proposed. Any good purpose the board might serve “would be better served by a development of industries board, as suggested by the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Association.

The association claimed that a comparatively small proportionate increase in land settlement and a revival in local industries would be effective in practically eliminating existing unemployment in all cases where the unemployed were willing and able to give adequate return Tn labour for wages received. It had unfortunately to be admitted, however, that there were a number of practically unemployable. The_ figures in October last placed these at 562, and no doubt there were others whom it would be difficult to place in permanent employment owing to pnfitness. They could only dealt with on humanitarian grounds and must always remain a tax on the country. The experience lately in the larger centres, where for the most part that class congregated, showed that the social organisations, which have done magnificent voluntary work in dealing with cases of distress, were certainly entitled to more adequate financial aid. The association suggested therefore that hospital maintenance should be separated from charitable aid.

As the total of unemployed in New Zealand was apparently only a small fraction of 1 per cent, of the population, the association was confident that provided that adequate provision was made for the registration and an effective check was imposed on the influx of persons who were likely to. become a charge on the community, the unemployment problem in the Dominion could be dealt with without the necessity for special legislation as proposed. It was urged that the present measure should be held over until a complete and thorough investigation of all causes of unemployment was made, and a more practicable scheme of dealing with it was evolved. The association was unanimously of the opinion that once the “dole” system, camouflaged as “sustenance allowance,” was introduced into New Zealand, it would have a most disastrous effect not only on the morale of the people but on the future prosperity of the country.