UNEMPLOYMENT SUBSIDIES

Taranaki Daily News, 5 December 1930, Page 12

UNEMPLOYMENT SUBSIDIES

GROUP SCHEME FOR FARMERS P ■SUGGESTION AT UNION MEETING, b b A scheme to assist production and i: improve the position of the primary I producers by the use of funds from Ji the unemployment levy was discussed e yesterday by the South ex- v ecutive of the Fanners’ Union. The r principle of farmers grouping together r to secure labour from the Unemploy- f ment Board was approved and a com- \ mittee was set up to evolve a concrete system. t Mr. J. S. Hickey said the board would } handle about £1,000,000, and would base c its policy on applications for assistance. s The farmer was the only man who could j show a return for the money. His idea j was that each farmer could employ a £ number of men in useful productive work. He suggested that, farmers should form employment groups and apply to the board for labour. That would pay better than most of the present and past relief works. Each half a dozen groups could have an overseer and the , men could camp as they did at pre- * sent. . If every penny of • the £1,009,000 was spent that way production, would j be up 20 per cent, next year instead of down, as it otherwise would be. He and his neighbours had already formed 1 a, group and applied to the board. . • ’ ’ Mr. L. Hunt said the idea was a good 1 one. Farms were going back because the occupiers could not pay for the necessary labour. . . v ; “It would be a good scheme if you j could get it to work,” said the presi- ' dent, Mr. E. J. Bette. • Mr. H. Hodge: Would you pay them 14s per day ? 11 Mr. Hickey:' I would not care as long ; as the board was paying for it. i Mr. W. L. Chambers said the money < was at present, being spent in a wasteful manner in beautifying work and was i adding to the liability of the country, ; If Mr. Hickey’s scheme ' could be put ■ into operation it would be of very great ; benefit to the Dominion. i Mr. Hickey thought the increased pro- : duction would help the farmers. i “You might as well let the men ,n • present relief works sit down and pay them the money,” said Mr. J. Cocker. ■ “They cannot use the unemployed to ( clear slips. off the road. I am satisfied that, as Mr. Chambers points out, the beautifying work increases the liabilities. The board is asking people to make work to employ these men. I feel that in the back country there is much useful land covered with gorse and scrub. The principle of the scheme is right. One point is that work on the farms will increase the security of mortgagees. ” . , “I don’t care about the mortgages,” retortfid Mr. Hickey. “It’s improving the land. There is not a farm in Taranaki where labour could not be employed, with great advantage.” “There is a tendency for production to go back,” said Mr. Carter, “and Mr. Hickey’s scheme would counterac. it.” The president said .a difficulty was that if farmers were getting men on relief work their former employees would leave if they did not get relief rates of pay. ■ '*. “The Government has got itself into, that position; let it get out of it,” replied < Mr. Hickey. “You would have the same position if a relief works camp was outside your gate. If your men go on to relief work you might as well have them working on your place as shovelling sand.” Mr. Chambers considered that scattered applications might not, cany much weight. The Farmers’ Union might well take it up and a committee might he set up to formulate a policy. Mr. A. D. Johnson thought the proposal might encourage the Government, to put the unemployed on Crown lands. The executive carried a resolution supporting the scheme and recommending that farmers form groups to put it into execution. '■■■■. The president, secretary and Mr. Hickey were deputed to put the scheme into form. UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF. GOVERNMENT CHRISTMAS GRANTS Though the works committee of the Hawera Borough Council was of opinion last night that Hawera’s share of the £25,000' Christmas unemployment subsidy would not be very large, as the sum was to be divided among ten different types of local bodies, it was decided to recommend the council to make application for a subsidy. The works on which it was suggested the subsidy of £2 for £1 be obtained included road grading and footpath work, probably in Nolantown. The recommendation of the works committee will be submitted to the general committee, which comprises the whole council, on Monday night. JOHN McCORMACK SEASON. OPERA HOUSE TALKIES. Beautiful things cannot be- sung in ragtime, and there should be more consideration for the ballad in the concerthall, according to John McCormack, the eminent tenor, who comes to the Opera House, Hawera, to-morrow afternoon at 2 p.m. in his first singing and talking picture, for Fox Movietone, “Song O’°My Heart.” There will be a season of three nights and one matinee. “I know that the ballad, far from having perverted popular taste, has done a great deal in the cause of good music,” McCormack said recently. “I have found , that the ballad has been the means by which I have persuaded my public gladly to receive the greater things. of music. I do not feel, like some artists, that the fact that I have been attracted by this type of music should be kept dark and hidden like a doubtful past. The ballads to which I refer, of course, have nothing to do with jazz. Dance music and songs have become so closely connected that the first thing a published asks about a new song is, 'Will it • make a good dance?’ You cannot sing ' of beautiful things in ragtime.” Little Nancy Carrol, the Rosemary of . Paramount’s production of Anne Nic- . hoi’s “Abie’s Irish Rose,” is one of . the best dancers in the film colony of > Hollywood. She began her career*, on the stage as a dancer, then took up sing- - ing, and became an ingenue who could step and warble as few others can. I When she signed the contract to appear ; in “Abie’s Irish Rose” Nancy Carroll > was following in the footsteps of two ■ other Paramount favourites, Louise Brooks and Doris Hill, who stepped from s the musical comedy and dancing stages • to motion pictures. She plays opposite Charles “Buddy” Rogers, in the famous > film showing at the Opera House, Ha- ' wcra, to-night for the last time. Reserves are at Miss Blake’s.