"TOO ATTRACTIVE"

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 140, 10 December 1929, Page 12

"TOO ATTRACTIVE"

UNEMPLOYMENT EELIEF

REFORM AND IMMIGRATION

"The efl'orts made by the United Government to solve unemployment have only increased it," declared Mr. Harold F. Johnston, Reform candidate for Hutt, when speaking at Koro Kovo last night. "They have made unemployment attractive, and that is not a good policy.''

Mr. Johnston said proof of his statement lay in the fact that the men who had been put on to a valuable property near i'eilding which the Government had bought for closer settlement could not get labour for their farming operations because the farm workers preferred to go on to relief works on account of the wages offering. This had led to the occupiers of the area having to sell their cows. "They have made unemployment attractive,'' continued Mr. Johnston, "and-that is not a good policy for the people of this country. If we get into the position of regarding the Government as being responsible for finding a job for every mail in the country that is to be more attractive than regular employment, then I saj- we cannot carry on at all.'' Up to 31st March last the cost of unemployment relief was £900,000 per annum, but for the- coming year it would be surprising it the cost of relief and of putting men ou to work from which the country would obtain practically no return -was not something like £1,500,000 per annum. Under the way the Government was going the problem would be -worse next winter. The Labour Government at Home had i failed to cure unemployment, and probably the "Left Wing" would put it out of office for that reason. The only way to remove unemployment was to foster trade and industry, and promote industrial progress by the creation of goodwill between Capital and Labour. A "get together" policy was necessary, and the workers should be encouraged to give of; their • best and assist the prosperity of industry by the payment of bonuses in addition to a minimum wage, and the distribution of labour shares.

Asked at question time -ivh.it he thought -,vas the cause of unemployment, Mr. Johnston said he thought it was due to there not being enough industries to absorb labour. The questioner: "Ana the Reform Government's immigration policy." "Yes, I think that the immigration [policy was ill-advised and not properly regulated," replied Mr. Johnston. "But immigration was adopted to meet the requirements of the land settlement policy that was being advanced, and it is quite obvious that a great number of the immigrants were not suitable tor that policy. I say immigration must be restricted by our industrial possibilities." _ The questioner: "That is your opinion, but. it is not the Beform Party's opinion." Mr. Johnston: "Well, it ought to have been." The questioner: "Then they were wrong." ' "Yes, possibly they "were- wrong," -Mr. Johnston agreed. A woman in the audience who appeared to be opposed to compulsory military training asked the candidate whether he did not think the establishment of a standing army would be a way of absorbing the unemployed With a smile, Mr. Johnston replied that quite likely it would, but it was another matter whether 'the country would stand the cost.

Reremng to the claim which he had made that the Reform Government had administered the finances prudently and left office with the country's credit standing high, someone asked too candidate why the Reform Government had reduced wages to 9s a day +1. w ohnstorl declined to agree that the Reform Government had reduced wages to that amount, but said that unless that Government had been in power and managed the finances extraordinarily well, there would have been nothing to givp at all. In Victoria, a Labour Government, under Mr. Hoekn had to turn away the unemployed because it had nothing to gW them. 1 hat is a Labour Government," remarked Mr. Johnston.. "You can't give more, than you have got."