“COMPULSORY EMPLOYMENT.”

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1933, Page 3

“COMPULSORY EMPLOYMENT.”

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l have just read a long letter in your paper signed “Straight Wire. The writer seems to know exactly what is wrong with the world, but he does not sppm to have anything new to offer to put things right. Hundreds of small contractors are wondering just what to do; more and more are becoming hopelessly insolvent through competition of the registered unemployed, and so far there has been no scheme of relief work which has not been' a “knock-out” for some other form of labour. The No. 10 scheme was about the last straw in that it amounted to taking money from poor men to enable wealthy ones to build cheap houses. No small property-owner could make any use of the scheme, because after he had paid the dole and wages tax there was nothing left to pay for necessary renovations of his own home. . The “brain wave” I have just received is this—that property-owners should be exempted from the dole and wages tax, provided that they give employment for the equivalent amount on their own properties. They could then have the necessary repairs and renovations carried out at intervals as usual. Exemption certificates could be sold at the post office in the same form as postal notes, and could be cashed only by workmen who had actually done work on the property of the person drawing' the note; and I think property-owners would see that they got value for the money. Any infringement could be suitably penalised. There are many people in Taranaki paying from £lO to £l5 a year in wages tax, etc., and at the same time are buyihg: a'home, while the payment of taxes prevents them from keeping the home in repair. If they could spend the tax for, -say, sewerage, concrete paths, painting, -etc.,. they, would find Work for Skilled men in their own trades, and would put an end to this farce of scrapping'the dust off the streets while the houses go into disrepair. If something such as is suggested above is not done soon there are dozens of small contractors due for insolvency, after which they will join the ranks of “registered unemployed” and help to r arry on the good work of putting others out of business. It must not be forgotten that there are nearly as many unregistered unemployed as there are registered. It seems to me that these relief works must collapse soon and some form of compulsory employment be substituted. So the sooner the navvies knock off building and .. the builders knock off nawying the better it will be for all of us. Wage-earners living in lodgings could still pay their taxes in the usual way, and that money could be used as a sustenance fund for the unemployable. I do not expect any medals for the suggestion, but at the same time I think some of our “brains” could build something round it which would be workable.—l am, etc., “OLD PAT.”