The Christchurch Star. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1930. REMEDIES FOR UNEMPLOYMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18992, 11 February 1930, Page 8

The Christchurch Star. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1930. REMEDIES FOR UNEMPLOYMENT.

r I MIE RATIONALISATION of industry seems to be the avenue that the British Labour Cabinet is going to explore in search of a remedy for unemployment. The “ Daily Herald ” quotes Mr Thomas as saying that they have submitted suggestions for the formulation of a “ long term industrial policy.” But there are certain doubting Thomases who see no prospect of a trade revival in this proposal, in view of the increasing industrialisation of countries formerly Britain’s customers. Those who have looked on the Dominions as markets capable of almost indefinite' expansion through the work of settlers on hitherto undeveloped country, must consider the situation anew. Emigration, they have thought, would cure unemployment and build up wider markets. A refreshingly new point of view on this subject is contributed to “ Tbe Nineteenth Century ” by a writer who is on a farm in Canada, and who points out, with arguments that are in many cases quite applicable to New Zealand, that the development of overseas Dominions is not relative to the supply of labour. There is not sufficient demand, he says, lor the commodities which these lands are capable of producing. Indeed, agriculture is stifled by overproduction, and suffers from the resultant lowering of prices and decrease in the purchasing power of the settlers. The wish for immigration to the Dominions frequently springs from the business and industrial interests through an illinformed notion that increased population means further opening up of the country and, therefore, increased prosperity. But this does not follow. In a great number of cases immigrants, finding no real opening on farms, drift back to the cities and swell unemployment. The reason is that they often find themselves, at the outset, on farms abandoned under the soldier settlement schemes.' The heavy initial liabilities, inexperience, and low prices drive them along the same road as the soldier settler has taken before them. A farmer’s reward is not in proportion to the work he does, nor is the present stagnation due to lack of labour. On the contrary agriculture is bearing its surplus of labour in the shape of over-production. One cannot wholly endorse what this writer says in considering the case in New Zealand, although it is true enough that the sons of farmers here hesitate to take up land for fear of failure under certain conditions. But the point of view is worth studying, because, while New Zealand must have a progressive land policy for the opening up of undeveloped areas, there must be an accompaniment of industrial expansion to preserve the natural balance of a properly self-contained country. And it is gratifying to know that the Labour Cabinet at Home is not intent on shipping its surplus population off to the Dominions.