The Daily News SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1934. WORK TO BE DONE.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 May 1934, Page 6

The Daily News

SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1934. WORK TO BE DONE.

OFFICES! NEW PETMOUTH. Currie Street. STRATFOpp. Broadway. HAWERA. High Street.

It is a pitiable confession of failure on the part of the Unemployment Board, and the Government as well, that sustenance payments should be granted to able-bodied unemployed instead of providing them with work. It is not that there is no work to do in the country, for it is crying out to be done on every hand, in every community, in every rural district. Important country roads need improvement, dangerous bends taken out, gradients reduced, and the road surface metalled. Only in Wednesday’s issue of the Daily News appeared a report of a discussion on the road conditions at Matau, a district which has been settled for over thirty years, yet parts of the main road have not yet been metalled. This neglect at a time of plentitude of labour is nothing short of a disgrace to all concerned. Again, in the Whangamomcma district a great many of the settlers have not yet metalled road access to the sections taken up over 25 years ago. Even the main road through the Tangarakau gorge has not yet been metalled. It is true that a start has been made with the construction of the Moki Saddle, which may be regarded as the key to this important arterial road. Certainly the main roads in the settled parts of the province have been given a lot of attention in recent years, but there still remains a tremendous lot of work to be done in the hinterland. There is force in what Cr. Taw said at the last Whangamomona County

Council meeting when he urged the handing over of the whole of the spending of the unemployment fund to the Public Works Department to administer on useful productive works, preferably in the back country. The Department would at least get some return, which cannot be said in respect of much of the relief work now being done in the towns. Apart from road work, there is other necessary and urgent work in Taranaki crying out to be done. Every farm, however highly developed, can be improved, and .work provided to keep every man at present on relief fully employed. Some will say, why improve the farms and increase production when the future of the markets is so clouded with uncertainty? But this is a condition which is not likely to be permanent. When the present epidemic of intense nationalism is spent—and spent it must be sooner or later—there will again be a profitable market for all we can supply. The long, and not the short, view must be taken of national development. It should not be beyond the wit or resource of the Government or the Unemployment Board to devise equitable means by which the services of the unemployed can be utilised in a useful and profitable manner. To say that there is no work to be done is to confess ignorance of the real conditions and necessities and advantages of the country. Of course, there is the difficulty in the case of the metropolitan centres of the men having to leave their homes for the scene of the developmental work, but it is not insuperable. Conditions as to pay and board should be made fair and reasonable, and nothing done to take advantage of the men’s necessities. There are great opportunities for a city to acquire cheap land in its vicinity and plant with trees. In France, Germany, Italy and other European countries practically every large city has its forest, which with its ancillary industries provides in the aggregate as much employment as the rural industries do, and provides also, sources of wealth which enable them to carry on in the present difficult times. Every city and town in New Zealand could profitably follow suit. In promoting and assisting in matters of this kind the Unemployment Board or the Government could do a real service to the unemployed as well as to the country. So far, however, all their efforts have been in the nature of The payment of sustenance where work cannot be given is an instance of their ineffectiveness and an illustration of their policy of marking time and following the line of least resistance. When will a real attempt be made to get the men back into regular employment? When will there be shown in high places some constructive, organising ability ? The average relief worker—the trier who is in the vast majority, and not the loafer—wants work, worth while work in which he can take an interest, and which he knows is of real value to the country, not ineffective, futile work, such as scraping paths, titivating parks, etc.