ARE THERE ANY UNEMPLOYED IN NEW ZEALAND?

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20667, 4 March 1937, Page 6

ARE THERE ANY UNEMPLOYED IN NEW ZEALAND?

So many claims have been made by the Ministerial heads of the New Zealand Labour Government, in support of the contention that the economic recovery of the Dominion is wholly due to the implementing of the Party’s political programme, that no one will be more than mildly surprised that the Member for Timaru should have made the startling discovery that the Labour Government’s administration of the affairs of the country has almost eliminated unemployment. Speaking at Temuka, the Member for Timaru, in the capacity as president of the New Zealand Labour Party, made this statement:

“Unemployment is where it was before the slump; in other words, there is at present practically no unemployment in New Zealand at all,” said Mr Carr.

Previously, Mr Carr said, unemployment had not been recognised as a problem at all, but the Labour Party had always recognised it as such. The figures were actually misleading. The Hon. W. E. Parry, Minister for Internal Affairs, and the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, Minister for Labour, who had examined the matter, were of the opinion that unemployment as it had been known had almost ceased to exist.

In one respect, at least, the speech of the Member for Timaru is unique; mainly because he is the first member of the Labour Party to announce the disappearance of unemployment, as a national problem. Unhappily for the Member for Timaru, an official statement issued by the Minister of Labour, dealing with unemployment figures, furnishes a refutatioh of such a conclusion:

During the four weeks ended on February 13, the decrease was 2098. A comparison between the figures for February 13, 1937, and those for February 15, 1936, shows a reduction of 18,932. The following shows the position at February 13, 1937, with the January 16, 1937, figures, in parentheses: Registered but not eligible or not placed on relief 2526 (2834); receiving rationed relief work under scheme No. 5 7058 (7874); receiving sustenance without work 19,357 (20,708); receiving full time employment, wholly or partly paid from the Employment Promotion Fund 6781 (6404); total 35,722 (37,820).

As this statement shows, not even the Minister of Labour makes the claim to have put ah end to unemployment. As a matter of fact, the Government, on its part, has issued invitations to the local governing bodies of New Zealand to assist the Government in providing work for the unemployed by embarking upon essential public works; indeed, it remains for us to quote a statement addressed to the Minister of Public Works last month, by the Member for Timaru, in support of the request by the municipal authorities of Timaru for a substantial subsidy to enable the Council to proceed with an important undertaking. At that interview the Member for Timaru declared there were 600 unemployed registered in Timaru. Thus the statements issued by the Minister of Labour and the remarks of the Member for Timaru spoken in Timaru on the occasion of Sir Semple’s visit, constitute an effective refutation of the remarks made by the Member for Timaru, in the capacity as president of the New Zealand Labour Party and addressed to the supporters of the Tarty who had foregathered at Temuka the other night. It is plain, of course, to all thoughtful people that the wave of economic recovery that is sweeping across the world has not left New Zealand unaffected; indeed, it is not denied that the good times in New Zealand have their source in Britain’s industrial and trade recovery.