The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1939. THE SLACKERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 55, 7 March 1939, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1939. THE SLACKERS

jyjK. I’. ( WEBB, Minister of Labour, lias again been cracking . the whip over those employed on Government relief work. This is a difficult la.sk at all times, and especially so when a .Minister belongs to a party which has fur years been talking about, slave camps. The r.nemployment camps were an excellent method of meeting the situation which developed so quickly that, it overwhelmed all attempts to cope with it. It provided food and shelter right away for those who would go into the camps, and it also gave to them no less than ten shillings a week as well as against the rations payment of 7s 9(1 and no food and shelter paid by Mr. Lang’s Government to single men in New South Wales. Mr. Lang was extreme enough, and if Im could do no better with the unemployment problem it is safe to say that, under the circumstances which then existed, the present declaimers against slave camps could have done no better than did .Mr. Lang. However, in New Zealand the. Labour Government came, into office under the most favourable conditions. The national, income rose to the peak, and yet the Government could not solve the unemployment problem. The employees on public works rose from 13,79.1 in January, 193 G, Io the peak of 23,851 in the election month of October last. Having negotiated the general election, the Government has immediately commenced to reduce the numbers employed on the public works pay toll. But there has continued another army of unemployed whose numbers have not hitherto been known. Mr. Webb, speaking at V hangarci, has admitted that there are at present between 14.(100 and 15,000 employed on the Number 13 scheme, while another 1100 are employed on playing areas and school grounds. If would be interesting to learn what, these various jobs have eost. It was stated by the Mayor of Wanganui that it eost some £l2OO to level the four acres of sand of the Health Camp at Gonvillc, and if that is a criterion of what the various “national assets’’ have eost the Dominion, it is no wonder that, this Dominion is now in a state of extreme difficulty. Ihe. admissions of Mr. Webb prove how hollow is the, claim that the Government has solved the unemplyment problem. Solving the unemployment, problem is not, achieved by simply employing men and paying them wages out. of proportion Io the value of Hie work performed, nor even when the work is done well but still produces an inadequate return. It is to the credit, of Mr. Webb That he has shown himself disturbed by the stale of affairs which exists, and is making sonic, efforts to remedy it. The problem of unemployment is how to place, men in employment which produces value to at. least as much as the men receive and the. materials « hieh they use, and the cost of superVisiou and other incidental expenses involved. In that problem the Government has admittedly failed. Seeing that, the present Government has failed in good times tn provide real employment for some 25,000 men al. least, if is in no position to east stones at. a previous Government which conserved Ihe nation’s assets and placed New Zealand in such a position that it was able to benefit immediately on the return to more prosperous times. Seeing that the Government is, however, endeavouring to return to reality, every effort should be made by those who are employed by the Government, either directly or indirectly, to give of their best, and the Government’s efforts to deal with the slackers should have the support of all. There, is still truth in the Chinese saying that if an idle man eats an industrious man starves.