The Waikato Times. With which is Incorporated The Waikate Argus. SATURDAY, JUNE 5,1926. THE UNEMPLOYED.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16815, 5 June 1926, Page 6

The Waikato Times. With which is Incorporated The Waikate Argus. SATURDAY, JUNE 5,1926. THE UNEMPLOYED.

The unemployment problem is very acute in all parts of New Zealand, and apparently Auckland is the chief sufferer. Meetings have been held by members of local bodies to decide on steps to deal with the position, and the Government have agreed to take on a limited number of men. Local bodies cannot do much unless they have laid out their work for the year, and are employing the men required to carry it out. It is safe to say, however, that all local bodies have works they would like to put in hand if they had sufficient funds, and therefore a great deal can be done to meet the position if authority is given to raise loans. A bank overdraft will not meet the position, as it means that the money must be repaid at au early date, and this may result in putting off men later, which is objectionable. It should be the aim of every’ local body as far as possible to keep a permanent staff. By so doing it can select its men, and they will understand their work and take a pride in carrying it out efficiently. It cannot be expected that there will be any such feeling amongst the men for whom special work has been provided. They know that it will only last for the time that flic emergency exists. Work created to provide employment is economically unsound, it gives no satisfaction to the man who does the work, or to the employer that finds the wages. Many men are put on at labourers’ work who have had no previous experience, and often are not physically lit for such work. The economic aspect of the matter is, however, the smallest part. Our conscience is dulled by the repetition ol' the tragedy, or we should perceive Us horrors. It is difficult to imagine any position more painful for a man willi a family than that of being unable to procure work. It is a haunting nightmare with many men, and is at the bottom of the demands for socialisation, nationalisation, and other schemes for ensuring that no man shall lack work. The unfortunate tiling is that no effective remedy can be provided at short notice. Work can of course be found as they are trying to find it in Auckland, but this is but palliation. It is no remedy. There is, in fact, no royal road to the desired end. We have developed beyond the stage when every man had his small plot of ground, and could at the worst provide some sort of living from it. Proposals have been made to revive this old condition, but it is a dream which can never bo turned into a reality. Modern methods require a certain mobility of labour. Every man cannot have a fixed job, or we could never carry out public works. Mobility of labour involves the possibility that when one job ends it may not be possible to'find another at once. This should not, however, mean that while waiting the man has to pawn his possessions or to go short of necessities Elaborate schemes have been devised in Britain to provide unemployment benefits by a levy on those who have remained in work. Such schemes are not easy to arrange and the cost of carrying them out is considerable. It may seem a counsel of perfection to suggest that the most effective remedy will be the payment of wages big enough to premit of a fund being established to carry a man over hard times. This, of course, requires that sufficient prudence should he developed to establish the fund while employment is good. Many people would say that it is useless to expect this, but they arc quite mistaken. If an enquiry could be made it would be found that many men have made such provision. It would also probably be found that the most acute cases of distress were found among the single men. Responsibility is not generally developed until a man has to think of someone besides himself.

It is uncertain whether our political leaders will realise that the existence of unempoyment on this scale is to some extent a reflection upon themselves. Men have been drawn into town to an unfortunate extent. They might, of course, have been unemployed in the country, but it is seldom Quite such an unmitigated disaster. Politicians constantly preach the necessity of getting on to the land. Immigrants are reproached that they do not do so. It would be well if enquiry were made as to the conditions open for such men, colonials or immigrants. Sometimes it may be reasonably good, but often men are expected to work for the wages and under the conditions that obtained 00 years ago. Money has altered in value; our ideas of living conditions have altered to an equal extent. It is useless to expect men to-day to live as settlers lived 00 or GO years since. Moreover, the settler looked forward to a prize in the possession of land for which lie was paying. The man on weekly wages lias no such bonus to look forward to. What is really wanted is that land should be thrown open to settlement at prices possible for men of small means, and Ibis could he done more easily than in the past because communication can be established by road at much loss cost than by rail. If this were done and provision made at the same lime for some of the amenities of life, a school, a church, a hall for entertainments, settlement would he rushed. We have nothing of the kind done for a long lime; some of our Ministers in fact seem to think that we have done all that is possible in agricultural development, but a movement

of this kind would do muck for the unemployed, and at least as much for the country.