UNEMPLOYMENT

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 112, 9 February 1928, Page 11

UNEMPLOYMENT

PROBLEM IN WELLINGTON SUGGESTIONS TO THE MAYOR A letter on the subject of unemployment has been addressed by Mr. G. Mitchell to the Mayor (Mr. G. A. Troup) : — “As a member of local bodies and especially the War Relief Association, I am convinced that immediate steps should be taken to meet the unemployment problem,” he writes. “Applications to the War Relief Association, due to unemployment, have increased 100 per cent, compared with last year. The Hospital Board is spending about three times their normal amount on relief (up to £14,000 a year) and all oilier charitable institutions and resources are being taxed to their limit, besides which I understand surrounding local bodies are faced with the same problem. This is in spite of excellent weather, good prices for produce, a record output and the fact that meat and other seasonal works are now running to full capacity and about 130 men are still employed on relief works by the City Council. Unless there is a general 'absorption of labour before rhe winter there is every indication that unemployment will be much more acute during the coming winter than it was last year. “It is the duty of all in authority to plan to meet’ such an emergency now, and not to wait until the .unemployed ?re driven by necessity to have deputations to the Government and the Council. It is a fact also that the sources from which people so liberally contributed last year are not inexhaustable and cannot be called upon annually with success. The Government and local bodies must, therefore, make provision without relying on large gifts from private individuals.” Mr. Mitchell suggests the development of waste lands, increased reading activity, and afforestation works ni the newly-acquired watershed areas as directions in which unemployed men mar be absorbed. “A comprehensive policy to absorb the unemployed must of necessity embrace large areas,” lie says, “and I am of opinion that the whole of the public bodies within the area should, for the sake of efficiency and to prevent overlapping, group their resources and their work under one committee as tar as possible. By this means we would have the single men drafted to the country districts, the B class men put on such works as thev are able to do, and the married men employed as near as possible to their homes.