THE MINISTER OF LABOUR INTERVIEWED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9581, 29 June 1909, Page 3

THE MINISTER OF LABOUR INTERVIEWED.

THE GOVERNMENT RELIEF

WORKS

A REMEDY SUGGESTED.

The Hon J. A. Miliar is now filling the position of Minister of Labour. 1 This morning he was seen by a reporter in reference to the epidemic of unemployment which is ju/t now causing trouble in New Zealand. He eaid that he had found yesterday that a good proportion of 'married men had refused to take the work offered them by the, local authorities, apparently preferring to sit at home. There was a considerable amount of genuine distress in Wellington thrbugh unemployment, more especially among skilled tradesmen; but it was by no means as _ bad as the public were being led to believe. It was especially hard to deal with the j unemployment of the painter, carpen- : ter, bricklayer or other skilled tradesmen, but. on the other hand, such workers, knowing how their work fluctuated with the seasons, should have adjusted matters better. The ranks of tho unemployed— on paper- — Were greatly swelled by the inclusion of the names of- men who had been " out of work " for a day, or two days, a state of things which occurred to them, no doubt, during the best of seasons, in the course of casual employment; and he quoted, to show how the lists of unemployed were "boosted," an instance or some time back. One of, the signatories to a petition had taken an Oriental name', gave his occupation as "casual labourer," stated that he had been out of work 102 weeks/ and in the column headed "married or single" wrote ■" forget." Other cases, not perhaps as baa helped to lengthen the list of unemployed. The difficulty was being solved, as far as employment was concerned, he said, by the provision of work for a good number of men. Instructions had been .issued for .100 men to be sent from Auckland to the Gisborne-Motu railway works. Another 100 would be taken on the Ongaruhe-Stratford line; a similar number wouki find work on the Midland Railway,, and twenty could be taken on at the Catlins River. A certain number oould be absorbed on the work of, duplicating the railway line between Dunedin and Mosgiel to help relieve the Dunedin labour market, and those openings would, he thought, reduce the unemployment to a minimum. In addition the Government was prepared to take 250 or 300 men to do bushfelling. A ten-thousand-acre "block of land at Rangitoto, the Upper Waitotara, was already surveyed, and men were now going on to it. It was good land and would be taken up as soon as it was cleared. For those who could not do bushfelling work, other work presented itself jn that block, as a main road would be necessary through it, under the conditions under which the block would be taken up. Altogether, the Government was prepared to provide work for about 800 men, for a short period. It was impossible for the relief to continue for long, as. the expenditure would be too great for the money voted by Parliament for " ways and means," x but it would tide over the winter, by which time things should, have had time to "look up" again.

Mr Millar said that he was investigating the methods adopted in various parts of the world for dealing with the unemployed difficulty, with a view to devising some scheme applicable to New Zealand. At present, it appeared to him that the most satisfactory plan would be to adopt a system of insurance against unemployment, to be supported by the men during the time they were in work. Tt was an involved problem, and would take a great deal of working out ; and a large factor in the difficulty would be the peculiarities of casual labour. Nevertheless, by adopting a system of payments by the unions, I>er head of membership, assisted by subsidies if necessary, he believed that it would be possible to evolve a soheme whereby all workers would be insured against want during the time they were unemployed.