NEW REGISTRATION FOR UNEMPLOYED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 76, 30 March 1931, Page 7

NEW REGISTRATION FOR UNEMPLOYED.

“ WILL WORK WELL IF 1 MEN PLAY THE GAME.*

A new scheme for the registration of applications for employment is being brought into force by the Unemployment Board. The scheme provides that, in all places outside the cities and boroughs where permanent officers of the Labour Department are situated, applicants must register with the nearest postmaster, who will keep a register of those seeking work. In order to bring all applicants for work, whether previously registered or not, into line, as far as the new registration scheme is concerned, a card has been printed, which each applicant will be required to fill in on the first occasion on which he calls at a labour bureau or at the post office nearest his domicile, provided it is in a district where there is no official Labour Department office. This card differs from the one previously used in that it provides that each applicant must state the date and place of birth of each of his children under sixteen years of age. He will also be required to produce his coupon book before registration will be accepted. A declaration will then be demanded to the effect that the statements made on the registration card are correct. On these conditions being complied with, applicants will be registered and supplied with a blue docket setting out date of registration, and it will be necessary to produce this for endorsement at the office of registration every fourteen days while applicants are out of employment. It has been stated that the scheme of registration previously carried on led to a good deal of confusion, and did not work well under the Unemployment Act, as there was no definite rule that men should register in their own districts. Consequently, a good deal of overlapping had resulted. It had also been found that accurate information was not given in regard to dependants. The new system, it is said, will work very smoothly, provided the men “play the game.”