Productive Work for Unemployed.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20104, 6 December 1930, Page 16

Productive Work for Unemployed.

It. is a step in the right direction that the Unemployment Board, with the approval of the Minister for Finance, has agreed to make available a sum of £20,000 to be applied by way of subsidy on the wages of new labour engaged by private employers. Until it is generally realised that unemployment funds can assist in placing men in permanent occupations only if they are applied to genuine production and not frittered away on unnecessary work artificially created, it will be impossible to feel comfortable about the community's charitable efforts. The scheme outlined by the Board covers country work and town work as well necessary farm operations like harvesting and ploughing, but gardening also, wood chopping, section clearing, subsoil drainage, trenching, and clerical work. Ifc would perhaps havo been better had the subsidy been limited to the country, for most farmers are financially embarrassed by the heavy fall in prices for their products, and cannot afford, without some assistance, the amount of labour necessary for the proper maintenance and development of their properties. The town work which ifc is proposed to subsidise is far less important, and yet it may happen, for various reasons, that the bulk of the money available will be spent in the towns. It is to be hoped that the local committees which are to be appointed, and the labour exchanges, will guard against this danger, and place the new labour where it will do most good.