CUT TO EIGHTH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20539, 14 February 1935, Page 9

CUT TO EIGHTH.

Unemployment in Western Australia. RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS. ihe position of the unemployed in Western Australia, the increase in gold production and the secession movement were three of the matters touched on by the Hon J. M. Drew, leader of the Legislative Council of Western Australia, who arrived in Christchurch this morning. It is his first visit to rs ew Zealand, and he is accompanied by Mrs Drew. Mr Drew said that in the eighteen months the Labour Party had been in office the number of unemployed had been cut to an eighth. Full rates were paid on relief works, all of which were reproductive works. Single men were allowed to earn up to 30s a week, and married men with families might be given full time employment for six weeks and then have to stand down for two or three weeks. One of the most successful schemes put into operation had been the placing of 1000 men prospecting for gold. They had been sent to the old goldfields in gangs of four, each gang in charge of an experienced prospector." Several discoveries had been made in the old goldfields which made the venture well worth while. The parties had gradually spread out and broken new country. The unemployed miners received 15s a week assistance from the Government, but had been told to take work in the mines or on pastoral lands if they could obtain it. Gratifying Results. There were three ways in which the results had been most gratifying. First, the gold production of Western Australia had increased by approximately £IOO,OOO in the eighteen months, making the State one of the few countries showing a notable increase in gold production. Secondly, because a high proportion of those engaged had gone off sustenance altogether and become prospectors themselves. Thirdly, it had resulted in developing a fine class of young men. The consequence was that the Government had decided to put another 1000 unemployed out on a similar scheme. “If only the prices for wheat and wool were right,” said Mr Drew, “ Western Australia would be prosperous.” Mr Drew was brief concerning the secession movement. He stated that its leaders were men who had favoured federation in 1901. Those who had opposed federation originally had remained in the background. The trouble they claimed was that the Constitution had been interpreted by the High Court and by various Commonwealth Governments in a different manner from that which the founders of the federation had intended. Mr Drew added that he had watched the political affairs of the Dominion with considerable attention.