REPLY TO CHARGES.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17501, 7 September 1928, Page 7

REPLY TO CHARGES.

PREMIER SPEAKS OUT. UNEMPLOYMENT IN DOMINION. • . RATIO LOWEST IN WORLD. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Friday. Alluding to the London Herald’s infest statement, Hon. J. G. Coates says facts are better than any comment, and the fact that New Zealand has the lowcst proportion of unemployed to tne population of any country in the world is an effective answer. Returns snowed that in the United States at the end of 1927 the unemployment ratio was one lo 28. in (treat Britain at March of this year the ratio was one in 38, in Queensland it was one in G 3, in New South Wales one in 107, and for the whole of the Commonwealth it was one in 190. For New Zealand the figures were 1 in 3G5. •• \\‘c in New Zealand,’ said Mr Coates, know that, it is an exaggeration to suggest that there arc hundreds ul starving men walking tlie roads or that large numbers of migrants arc in dire distress. We know that tiiere is unemployment-, and tiie Government has not sought to minimise its real extent. We have preferred to face the position fairlv and squarely in an endeavour to find work to tide the men over their difficulty. For party purposes there are those who seek to magnify the position instead of lending assistance to lIi C Government in finding a solution of the problems. As far as migrants arc concerned close contact is maintained with them by the Emigration j Department, and for every one who ; has complained of the treatment ac- | corded him in the country of his j adoption there are hundreds who have , nothing but gratitude for the assist-I ancc they have received,”