UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 June 1931, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF.

In all the circumstances the decision of the Government to keep in operation the system of unemployment relief known as the No. 5 scheme will be generally approved. In order to do so it is inevitable that public money will be spent in advance of that already approved by Parliament, but there is 'little doubt of that approval being given, even if the Ministry’s proposals for future relief meet with a different fate. For the moment private benevolence and official charitable aid organisations are spared the handling of critical circumstances, and the outlook for those dependent upon relief works is less gloomy than it appeared a week ago. None the less has the problem of unemployment still to be faced. Scheme No. 5 is but a palliative, and the same must be confessed of all the methods so far tried though some of them may contain the germ of a more lasting benefit. The Primo Minister states that it will be one of the first duties of Parliament to provide extra funds for relief. This is quite apparent, but Parliament has a bigger question to face than the mere provision of funds, though that is no small affair with the national finances in their present condition. What is required is a plain statement of what has been achieved by the expenditure already made, and what is expected of the further funds the country is asked to provide. Such a statement implies something more ■than a more record of work supplied for so many individuals for certain periods. It should state plainly whatever indications there may be that a solution of the problem is in sight and in what directions experiments made have proved failures. The problem is admittedly a difficult one, with but one definite precedent as a guide to those endeavouring to grapple with it here, that being the disastrous effect of the introduction of any system of doles without labour given in return. It may be that genuine effort is being made by the Unemployment Board to find the way out of the trouble, but, its calculations in regard to finances having proved inadequate, the public is entitled to know exactly what results have been achieved and what hopes lie in further experiment for which it must find the cash. At present results are decidedly disappointing, and those footing- the bill may reasonably ask whether the Board has achieved anything more than a mere distribution of public funds that has created a demand for still further generosity., it would be particularly interesting to know whether the Board has any ideas on the subject of the development of industry and commerce as a means of absorbing unemployed, and especially whether it has made any attempt to investigate the bearing of the Arbitration Act upon this question.