FRANKTON DISMISSALS.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17408, 22 May 1928, Page 6

FRANKTON DISMISSALS.

PREMIER’S REPLY. TRYING TO FIND WORK. SPECIAL STEPS TAKEN. Yesterday Mr. W. Lee Martin, M.P. for Raglan, telegraphed representations to the Premier with regard to the dismissal of employees at the Frankton House Factory. Mr. Martin has now received the following reply:— “ Y'our telegram received. The Government is making every possible effort to absorb men thrown out of employment on account of lack of work at the house factory, and special steps are being taken at the. present time to find work, particularly for married men.—J. G. Coates.” AN ECONOMIC WASTE. MUCH MONEY LYING IDLE. GOVERNMENT’S POLICY" OF DRIFT. MR. W. LEE MARTIN’S OPINION. Questioned with regard to the statement published in yesterday’s Waikato Times, from officials at the house factory, Mr. Lee Martin said he did not wish to enter into a controversy with any of the officials, who were only carrying out instructions and were not to blame. This, however, did not absolve the Government of blame in their failure to meet the situation of unemployment throughout the country. No one denied, said Mr. Martin, that the question was an economic one. If it was waste of public money, however, to keep men on the pay-roll when no work could be found for them, then it was difficult to understand the difference between this and the spending of huge sums on relief work, which must come out of the consolidated revenue. Thousands of pounds, he added, had been sunk in the house factory, and surely it was a tremendous economic waste for this to be lying idle. The whole position regarding unemployment, declared Mr. Martin, showed the necessity for a close investigation into the causes, and for the past 12 months this had been urged upon the Government, who, however, had allowed the matter to drift.