PALLIATIVES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 448, 5 March 1909, Page 7

PALLIATIVES.

LIBERAL MINISTRY'S LABOUR POLICY. UNEMPLOYED ACT. DEBATE IN THE COMMONS. (by TELEGUArH—rRESS ASSOCIATION— COrylllGnT.) (Rec. March 4, 10 p.m.) London, March 4. In tho courso of tho dobato in tho House of Commons on tho Government's administration of tho Unemployed Workmen's Act, sn which Labour mombers attacked tho President of tho Local Government Board ' (Mr. John Burns), Mr. Ramsay Macdonaid (Labour momber for Leicester) strongly objected to Mr. Burns's contemptuous dismissal of tho proposal to establish farm colonies for women. Ho urged that if tho Government did not believe in tho Unemployed Workmen's Act, thoy ought to repeal it. v Tho Chancellor of tho Exchequer, Mr. Lloyd-George, said that Government grants wore only a means of tiding over temporary difficulties. Tho moro provision of unnecessary work would bo demoralising. An amendment, moved by Labour members, was rejected by 159 votes, to 70. MR. BURNS AND MR. MACDONAID ON FARM COLONIES. Mr. Burns, in his criticism* of the farm colonies, has instanced the case of Hollesley Bay. Ho states that before that estate became public iproperty, a steward with eighteen farm hands was able to make a small profit or incurred a small loss every year. Since it became a State' relief-work, with 250 men engaged on it, it had had a net loss of .£22,000 a year. At Hollesley Bay the net cost per week per man is from 30s. to 325., whereas local wages, are from 17s. to 18s. a week. At the South Ockenden colony also the cost per week per man is something between 30s. and 325„ cr about double the rate .of wages paid to the agricultural labourer. s[r. Ramsay Macdonaid writes: Farm colonies, graded from semi-penal settlements for those who will not work, to colleges for those who are being trained for work upon small' holdings or on farms, are necessary as bridges connecting town and country. They woul'd be particularly useful for passing those who havo become permanently unemployed in the towns and under factory conditions, back upon the land, where for some time longer they could earn an independent living. For some considerable time, • this process ■of filling up the country, if properly organised, will enable governments to relieve tho pressure of tho unemployed. But when the work has been accomplished and the English village has grown again and the English field is tilled and bears fruit, the economic law of depression will bring periodically its slack seasons. These proposals do not solve the unemployed problem."