SPIRIT OF WILLINGNESS.

Wairarapa Age, 2 July 1932, Page 3

SPIRIT OF WILLINGNESS.

NEW ZEALAND’S PEOPLE SHARING SACRIFICES. REVIEW BY MR. COATES. SUVA, July 1. Interviewed aboard the Aorangi bound for the Ottawa Conference, Mr. Coates dealt mainly with the unemployment situation in New Zealand. “The unemployed,' 1 he said, “numbering 54,000 male adults, realise that the Government is doing its utmost on their behalf to the absolute limit of the funds available. Although a few agitators, mostly not native-born, are constantly seeking to stir up trouble, the great majority of the unemployed have taken the same view that the Government is not blamable for their distress. When it was first suggested that single unemployed men should work for 10s a week plus rations, the proposal was greeted with derision. Latterly, the men concerned have realised the true facts. The day I left Auckland 150 young men entered a working camp on these terms. Already many other camps are working satisfactorily. A particularly encouraging feature, indicating that the men are showing the right spirit, is the fact that relief workers are shovelling equal yardage of material on roadmaking and drainage works to ordinary conditions. “Five thousand men under (supervision of experienced miners are engaged in alluvial and quartz goldmining in Central Otago and the West Coast and the Thames districts. Two thousand of these are subsidised by the Government. Exceptionally promising are the reports of finds of gold in the Beefton district. The Government is financing many of these platoons of eager miners, a large proportion of whom are already self-supporting, having repaid the Government's relief subsidy at the rate of 10 per cent, of their gold returns. Many men have been assisted to settle on ten-acre fanning sections, with the option of purchasing adjoining blocks of 50 to 60 acres, and are already doing well. Unemployed women are not directly under Government supervision, but pri-

vate organisations with Government assistance are helping women to find suitable work. Former wages and working conditions are necessarily modified until the Dominion returns to normal, but everywhere there is a spirit of willingness to share sacrifices. Mr. Coates concluded: This singlemindedness throughout the country is the happiest augury for rehabilitation, Which I hope Ottawa will facilitate With important trade measures. I earnestly hope the day is not far distant when Government relief will no longer be necessary."