The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1931. WORK FOR THE WORKLESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18818, 5 March 1931, Page 8

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1931. WORK FOR THE WORKLESS.

Official records issued by the Department of Industries and Commerce point out that “the problem of unemployment still remains a very live one in New Zealand, and the Government is faced with one of its most serious difficulties in trying to solve it, or at any rate, in trying to alleviate the distress inevitably consequent of it, by endeavouring to find work for the unemployed.” It is worthy of note, in this connection, that although a definite promise was given nearly two years ago that there would be jobs for all in the course of ten days, the official records show that notwithstanding the. expenditure of tens of thousands of pounds, the unfilled applications on the books of the Government employment, bureaux at the end of the week during the last three months of the year increased as follows:

1930. Registered Week Ending: Unemployed. September Bth 5,536 October 6th 6,052 November 3rd 6,080 December Bth 9,630 The figures have forced the official statistician to confess that “in spite of the greater demand for farm labour consequent upon the commencement of shearing and other seasonal farming operations, the number of unfilled applications remaining on the books of the Government employment bureaux at the end of each week has steadily increased." In other words, although public funds have been poured out to provide relief work for the unemployed, the problem remains unsolved. It is worthy of note, however, that while the ranks of the unemployed have been swelled week after week, the Dominion persists in importing millions worth of goods that might be manufactured in Xew Zealand. The following table affords an interesting comparison being made between the value of importations coming into the country during the year ended December 31, 1930, and in the corresponding period of the previous year:

Total imports 43,025,914 48,797,977 An examination of import returns should suggest to the interested New Zealander, that since the total wages paid to all the factory workers in the Dominion totals less than £18,000,000, if all patriotic and far-seeing New Zealanders would buy New Zealand-made goods and help local industry, that, uh far as New Zealand is concerned the unemployment problem would almost solve itself; moreover, the trade balance would swing some millions more, in our favour. In Timaru alone, the revival of the woollen-milling industry would provide employment for one hundred persons. Other directions in which New Zealanders could help, suggest themselves to discerning citizens. But it must be apparent to everyone who takes the trouble to study the operations of the various authorities and organisations entrusted with unemployment relief work, that their combined efforts to date have solved nothing; on the contrary the official records provide indisputable evidence that while the country is importing many millions of pounds worth of goods that could be made in the country, the unfilled applications for work on the books of the Government employment bureaux at the close of 1930 attained record dimensions. INDIA’S HOUR OF DESTINY. Although it may be claimed that the concession of more latitude to the coastal inhabitants of India whereby they will in future be permitted to gather, manufacture and sell salt without infringing the excise laws, has overcome another obstacle, and

cleared the path for a settlement in India, the unpleasant fact still confronts British statesmanship that all the fatal difficulties in the way of Dominion status and democracy remain, notwithstanding the futile discussions at the Round Tabic Conference and the consultation in which the Viceroy and iUahatama Gandhi are participating. Early in the year, Lord Rothermere, writing in The Sunday Despatch made this arresting statement:

In India we are playing, not with Are—for that can be put out—but with high explosive. The late John Morley was right when he said that if ever we left India, “the last British soldier, as he stepped aboard the ship, would have the sound of rapine and bloody murder in his ears.”

The mad folly planned by this Round Table Conference must be stopped. It is humanly impossible to graft Anglo-Saxon parliamentary government upon a huge chaotic Oriental country, inhabited by a patchwork of peoples, with no common language, no common religion, no common history or interests. Democratic institutions cannot be made to order. They can only grow. Real parliamentary government has taken three hundred years to mature in England. It is far from satisfactory yet. Other European States, incomparably more civilised than India, are renouncing it. Yet the Round Table Conference is drawing up a democratic Constitution for India after only fifteen years’ trial of the Montagu-Chelmsford plan for the gradual introduction of Indians into the Administration. This experiment, on the admission of Indian leaders themselves, has already led to more abuses and disorder than occurred in the whole half-century that had gone by since the Mutiny.

Notwithstanding the perfervid outbursts of the Socialists, a great body of well-informed public opinion in Britain supports the view that the politicians are planning a great betrayal in India. “Let us wipe away the froth of sentiment and get down to the hard rock of facts,” says one appeal.” “India is not, and has never been a nation. She only lias the appearance of being a united whole because British rule has kept her so for a hundred and fifty years.” The financial advisers may ease excise enactments, and an inexperienced Viceroy may pander to the wishes of Mabatama Gandhi, and the Socialists may indulge in their sophistries, but Moslem and Hindu are still at variance. The absurdity of the talk of democratic government in India will be realised by anyone who gives a, passing thought to the fact that the seventy million Moslems are determined not to be. subordinated to the two hundred million Hindus. Yet the first principle of democracy (such as is, we are told, to be set up in India), is that the majority must rule. But who will say that there can be “responsible” government or a “representative” government in India, while this impossible gulf of hostility and distrust yaw r ns between tlie two leading classes of tlie Indian population. All the facts marshalled in the Simon Commission’s report have been simply ignored. To talk of “safeguards” is to display a, crass ignorance of the enormity of the problem; such “safeguards” as have been paraded will not be worth the paper on which they will be written. The temper of even the so-called moderates

among the Hindu Nationalists is to be gathered from their reluctance to promise that there shall be no special discrimination against British trade and British shipping inside the Indian tariff wall. Unrivalled authorities on

Indian problems have warned the nation in plain terms that when authority weakens in the East,

the law of the jungle takes its place, and that is why the Indian question is regarded as confronting the nation with one of tlie greatest crises ip the history of the Empire. HAS THE TIDE TURNED? Within the last day or so, three items of news which have found their way into the columns of the newspapers, should give the woolgrowers new heart. For several days, the hardening tendency of the wool market in Australia has been full of significance; indeed, the cable messages this morning report that a very brisk demand was a feature of the sale, giving satisfactory clearances at prices showing an advance of 5 per cent, to 7j per cent, on the previous day’s returns. Another cable message, this time from London, gives the views of a wellknown Bradford expert, who after issuing a very necessary warning to growers who are becoming careless in their attitude to the quality of the wool submitted for sale, strongly urges the growers to maintain supplies. He warns them against slackening their efforts, and lie scouts the very idea that low prices are going to last indefinitely. The third feature of the wool news of the last day or so, is the report from Christchurch telling the story of the very appreciable rise in ruling prices. Not unnaturally, tlie growers and brokers are very guarded in their references to the substantial recovery of the market. It is pointed out that the keener competition, resultiqg in higher prices, was due almost wholly to the operations of the Japanese. The fact remains, however, that the market has at long last moved away from depths of low prices, with a noticeable and justifiable

recovery of a more optimistic feeling in the wool trade generally. The state of the wool market means so much to both the town and country interests of the Dominion, that it is not surprising that the hardening of prices has attracted widespread attention. If, as the brokers say, the rise in price is “too sudden to be safe,” the improvement in the market is nevertheless welcome in the difficult situation that confronts the wool growers. The net result to the producers will he considerable, and it is fervently hoped that keen competition will mark subsequent sales, with a maintenance of that decided upnaid trend which has been experienced within the last few days, in other wool selling centres.

1930. 1929. Value. Value. £ i £ Wheat 77,235 77,555 Sugar 757,027 766,979 Tea 708,095 935,373 Whisky 457,015 558,270 Cigarettes 395,285 575,738 Tobacco 734,406 751,331 Apparel 2,893,782 3,123,490 Boots and shoes 928,683 1,066,087 Carpets and linoleum 578,718 650,389 Drapery, n.e.i 363,634 452,022 Cotton piece-goods 1,817,552 1,946,819 Silk piece-goods 1,020,721 1,212,028 Woollen piece-goods 622,256 742,649 Petrol and kerosene 2,264,754 2,349,305 Goal 200,419 276,671 Hardware, n.e.i. 863,056 903,720 Electrical equipment 2,183,324 2,012,498 Timber 917,335 790,183 Motor-vehicles .. .. 2,448,781 4,278,720 Tires for motorvehicles 809,701 1,162,841 Other imports . . 21,984,133 24,165,309