THE IMPROVED OUTLOOK

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2322, 2 December 1914, Page 4

THE IMPROVED OUTLOOK

' Gratifying news which we publish" to-day on the authority of the Labour Department is to the effect that unemployment in the Dominion is steadily diminishing at the present time, and that it is likely to practically disappear in the near future, at Jeast for some months to come. The pessimistic prophecies of trade-dislocation and unemployment which were voiced in some quarters soon after the war broke out have happily not been verified. There has been a certain amount of unemployment, _ notably in Auckland and Christchurch, but not much more than has often been experienced in years of peace, and tho Eosition is now' rapidly improving, luring the last few j months the Labour Department, aeting in cooperation with the Public Works Department, has. been able to do a great deal to find employment for displaced workers, and this, duty seems to have been well and capably carried out. Some captious persons, did indeed find fault with.the Government for, transferring unemployed men from the South Island to railway works in the North Island, but in justice they should rather have applauded its enterprise. It is in no small degree due to the sound financial and administrative methods of the Government that the pinch of unemployment has been so little felt in tho difficult months through which the Dominion has just passed. A policy of maintaining strong balances in the various working accounts (in marked contrast to the hahd-to : mouth policy of the present Government's predecessors) has made it possible to increase instead of diminish the, number of men employed on public works and other undertakings carried on by the State, and so ,to absorb a considerable proportion of those displaced from private employment. Now that the .summer months aro opening, prospects are undoubtedly bright. Harvesting and other country and seasonal industries will afford ample employment for months to come, and, looking further ahead ' open trade routes and assured markets for export produce are a fairly reliable guarantee under sound government of the continued prosperity of tho Dominion.