DOLEFUL TALES OF POSITION AT HOME ARE DEPRECATED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19036, 3 April 1930, Page 7

DOLEFUL TALES OF POSITION AT HOME ARE DEPRECATED.

Ttade Commissioner Answers Charges By New Zealanders. (Special tc the “ Star.”) WELLINGTON, April 3. Regret at the attitude of some New Zealanders who, having journeyed to England, returned With a doleful story of conditions at Home was expressed by the British Trade Commissioner (Mr L. A. Paish) when addressing an audience in the concert chamber of the Town Hall last night. Such comments, said Mr Paish, could do no good and could only create bad feeling between those in England and those in New Zealand.

“ We don’t want that,” he added. What we want are better relations.” Comparing Britain’s unemployment problem with that of Germany and of the United States, Mr Paish stated that in Germany there were half as many people again as there were in the United Kingdom. Germany had 3,000,000 unemployed and England 1,500,000. The United States had two and a half times the population of the United Kingdom and had 6,000,000 unemployed. Having made these comparisons, the speaker intimated that there -was no reason to be despondent. Reference was made to allegations that the unemployed at home were lazy and were living on the dole. Mr Paish assured his audience that such was not the case. In his opinion, the British worker was by no means lazy and worked as hard as any other worker in the world. The dole was constantly being held up against Greal

Britain. It was true that they had a dole, but some form of payment was essential. During the post-war period one could not see men and women starve, just because they could not obtain work. Many of them w’ould never be able to secure employment, and had to be kept. Great Britain would be lacking in a sense of decency if she could not do something to keep those unfortunate people from starving. Most of them would be only too pleased to do any work if it were available. It had been said that some did not want to work, but in reality cases of malingering were very few. In conclusion, Mr PaiSh warned people not to think that the dole was bad. He did not want them to take the view that, because unemployment was a bad thing and the dole was unemployment pay. that the dole was a bad thing That was not true logic.