THE Wairarapa Age SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1937. BRING OUT THE FACTS.

Wairarapa Age, 1 May 1937, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1937. BRING OUT THE FACTS.

Aspects of the unemployment problem which greatly need attention were brought out suggestively the other day when the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) was interviewed by a deputation from the Manurewa Town Board. With a water-supply scheme in hand, the board has been granted a subsidy on condition that at least 80 per cent, of the men engaged are registered unemployed. On the ground that it had difficulty in obtaining suitable men from the unemployed register, the board sought to have the quota of unemployed reduced to 50 per cent. The Minister is reported as having suggested, in the discussion that took place, that provision would have to be made by the State for the men who formed the residue of bad times—men from 50 to 55'years of age who obviously could not be pensioned off—and also for the intermittent worker. Mr. Parry, we. are told, said that the State should 'train and look after the intermittent workers ahd in return should receive payment for the work provided for them. A member of the Manurewa deputation said there were young men on sustenance who would not accept relief work, a state of affairs the Minister said he would not tolerate. These various points an,d observations are of interest in setting additional emphasis on the fact that the whole problem of unemployment in this country stands badly in need of methodical examination.

It has been urged rightly that an immediate investigation should be made of the position of lads and young men who have been denied in the slump and its aftermath, and in conditions complicated by the institution of the baffic wage, a fair start in work-

ing life. That part of the problem has well-established claims to priority of treatment, hut there is need ’in addition of a searching examination of all parts of our total unemployment problem, so that the Government and people of the Dominion may see precisely what the problem amounts to. The first main line of division to be established is between men who are fit for one branch or another of what may be called normal employment and those who, on account of age or for other reasons, are in a different category. Even the incomplete scrutiny of the facts that is now possible makes it obvious that the current lists of unemployed include large numbers of men who are not fit for normal employment and would not be absorbed automatically at any pitch of ordinary industrial revival. Of these men, a proportion no doubt might be fitted by special training for industrial or other productive service. Taking account of the state of affairs that exists to-day, with its factors of inevitable, continuing deterioration, it should be easy to agree that the cost and trouble entailed in instituting special training would be amply worth while. For another proportion of those now unemployed, the best that can be done may | be the organisation of light employ- • ment of various kinds—employment that would be free from the stigma of relief. This part of the problem also should receive serious attention.

With the total problem reduced by orderly examination to its detail divisions and dealt with in these divisions, the task of finding openings for fit and able men who need normal employment ’ought to be simplified very considerably. The initial need, and the first step towards effective action, evidently is to classify the registered unemployed in the greatly differing sections into which they evidently divide. We must give to each section the treatment and assistance it needs if we are to find any hopeful way of escape from our present difficulties. It is more than time that we brought our intelligence and energies as a community squarely to bear upon the problem of r unemployment. As a democracy we assert ottr superiority to the Communist and Fascist dictatorships that are making a great noise in the modern world. Our superiority must be demonstrated in results if it is to be maintained effectively, and in no particular is it more vital that. tiiis should be done than in that of miking available productive and profitable employmeht to all fit and willing workers.