UNEMPLOYMENT ACT.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20106, 9 December 1930, Page 16

UNEMPLOYMENT ACT.

TO THE EDITOR O* THE FRBSS Sir, —Tlie Jotters published in your paper regarding the ''dole" are most interesting, but should this Unemployment Act have been passed at all in its present form? '1 lie United Party entered into power under false pretences, promising impossible things, which were accepted by the gullible as a last straw in the hope that the depression could be counteracted. It was promised that seventy million would be borrowed to enable employment to be given to all, and a large majority of the people of New Zealand accepted this preposterous promise. But instead of helping New Zealand the United Party turn round and rob Peter to pay Paul a "dole," which will be mostly devoured to keep civil servants in well-paid positions, with the additional snug salaries and expenses attached to the Unemployment Board. At least one-third of the money will go to those purposes. The unemployment tax in its present form is scandalous. Thousands oi married men wi*h families of three (or in ore) do not earn more than £4 per week; it is a well-known fact that £i per week does not enable these men to giva their families more than the bar necessities of life—in fact, they cannot make both ends meet on that wn<re; yet the United Party rob these I thousands of families of further necessities to give it to others. Two wrongs do not make, a right, but the Government compels one poor, underfed family to go without a little moreit to another —while the rich, who havo too much already, only give a like proportion from their larder. Wo have had ample proof of the inefficiency of the Government. Tt is now up to those who inflicted these "duds" on us by voting for them to show their sympathy towards us at next election by voting for men who are fit for the lob.—'Yours, etc.. COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER. December Bth, 1930. TO TUB EDITOR OF THK PBESS. Sir,— Staff-Captain Dry, Superintendent of the Salvation Army Men's Home at Addington, in his letter published in The Press of Saturday, supplies a most damning commentary on tiie utter ineptitude and callous incapacity of the Government of to-day. I us© tho word "callous'' deliberatelyIt is a fitting adjective to apply to an incapacity that persists in hanging on to office through years that see th© country sinking deeper and deeper into the bogs of financial difficulty and social distress. The commentary is all the more effective in that it Was never designed by Captain Dry as a commentary or criticism. He told a plain, unvarnished story; but what can we learn from it? We learn something of the amazing work done by the Salvation Army in our midst, in th© way of succouring the unemployed and the destitute, sunk l>elow the poverty line, and, so far as this Liberal (?) Government is concerned, left to sink or swim, to live or die there. Whatever criticism is ever passed upon the Army m New Zealand, every intelligent New Zealander will recognise and admit that it is in these days of stress the chief, perhaps the only, effective buffer between the country and red revoluI tion and Communism. Captain Dry tells us that during the year ended in September last the Ad- 1 dington Home had supplied (in round figures) about 100,000 meals, 31,000 beds, and that over 2000 articles of clothing had been given away. Lot any intelligent reader try to think what would have been the result if this great fountain of Samaritan work i h.,d not been flowing freely. There is , much talk of Communism in our midst | j list now, but how would it be if such | good work as the Addington Homo is I doing suddenly ceased?. The fact is I

the Government, by neglect or incapacity in dealing with unemployment; by its present of an Unemployment Act which is the most muddled and non-undcrstandablo measure ever passed by any Parliament; by its irritating preachments of worthless platitudes, has done more to breed and foster Communism than any deliberate Communist propaganda has ever done. Now Zealand Communists do not require any aid from Hussia so long as the present Government is in power. If the Army were actuated by ordinary business principles instead of by Christian kindliness it might well say to the Government: "What have we to do with the mess you have made and are making? Tt is your funeral. to it." The public, however, will give an appreciation it is foolish to look for from self-seeking, place-hunt-inc politicians. I hope Captain Dry will soot) be able to tell us that lie has had a hearty and generous response to his appeal.—Yours, etc., J.S. December Bth. 1930.