UNEMPLOYMENT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 43, 20 February 1930, Page 10

UNEMPLOYMENT

LOCAL POSITION

600, REGISTRATIONS

'APPEAL TO MINISTER

The unemployment position in Wellington city ifand district was the subject of a deputation to tho Minister of Labour to-clay by representatives of O>« district .council of the Alliance of juaSour. In introducing the speakers, Mr. P. Fraaer, M.P., said that the position in Wellington haf.t reached unprecedented proportions; there were 600 men registered as unemployed, and that meant that at least lCfl'O were out of work, as many did not register. The chairman onf the district council, Mr. W. Bromley, said the council had been forced to draw attention to the state of unemployment owing to the large number of, men applying for work. "I think it will be agreed," he said, "that it is now an admitted principle in all the countries constituting the British Commoiuwealth that the problem of unemplqyment is one for the Government. That has been admitted by the political leaders of all parties in the different countries. The problem in New Zealand assumed large proportions before tl»e present Government took, office, and whether it is a problem that cannot be cheeked by Government action may bo debatable. But it is an established fact that since the present Gov^rnmon t assumed office the proportion of ui&employinent in this country has continued on the up-grade, despite all thnt the Government may have done to relieve it. Nor is the problem goirqg to be solved by merely excluding th c numbers of the unemployed from :the statistical returns, as is being don«." The Minister (the B ron. W. A. Veitch): "That is not a. fair thing to say." A RECORD FOR FEBRUARY. Mr. Bromley said there »vas no absolute evidence of the number of unemployed in the Dominion ,• to-day. He was prepared to assert that there were 600 unemployed in Wellington at present. That constituted a record for this time of the year and g:oing back for many years. The. deputation had no solution to suggest, but the Minister of Labour had recently stated that the second report of tho <! ommittee which had been set up to in vestigate the unemployment problem contained valuable suggestions which if acted on would go some distance towards solving the trouble. The deputation submitted that no time should be lost in releasing the report for publication, and that it was the job of tho Government to act ou the recommendations. If there were 600 unemployed in Wei-, lington to-day, what was the position likely to be in July, which was .always a worse month in the matter of, unemployment? February, indeed, should show the least number of unemployed of the year. The number to-day about what it was in July, 1929, .when it was.decided to discontinue the publication of the unemployment figjares. Unless something very much moro definite was done by the Government this, year, unemployment could be expected during the coming winter to> be very much more alarming than before. The Labour bodies were ready to 'Cooperate in any action the Governm*nt ■was prepared to take which showed .-a reasonable chance of relieving thy problem, but they did want to be/ taken into the confidence of tho Got* eminent. IN VARIOUS TRADES. Mr. H. B. Swindell, secretary of the electrical trades union, said that never since the formation of the union had unemployment been so bad amongst j electricians. Far too many operatives had been trained in the industry, and now that hydro-electric and' other big works were "petering out" the men were thrown into competition with other unemployed workers. Something would have- to be done to prevent the introduction of apprentices. The trade was in a most deplorable state. Mr. P. M. Butler, secretary of the General Labourers' Union, pointed out that the general labourers were the first to bear the brunt of men who were thrown out of jobs in their own trades. There were at present on his b&oks 248 men looking for work who had come from other trades. The position of other trades was stated by Mr. A. Black, secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Trades Union, who said a mistake had been made by the Government in discharging men from the Hutt Valley railway workshops, and Mr. J. O. Johnston, secretary of the Wellington "Waterside Workers' Union, who said that on the wharves there was a surplus of about 600 men. FOR THE CABINET COMMITTEE. Replying'to the deputation, the Minister said he was sorry to hear their representations as to the local unemployment position. He had had a note taken of all that had been said, and he would ask the Cabinet Unemployment Committee to meet as early as possible and take the whole question into serious consideration in the light of what had been said. Replying to criticism of the Government's administration of unemployment and unemployment relief, Mr. Veitch said that the difficulty at the Hutt workshops was that, in the period of changing over from the old to the new workshops the work had been thoroughly disorganised and repairs had got into arrears, and consequently overtime had been worked'to overtake arrears. He recognised that the men could have been employed longer by working them eight hours a day and spreading the work over a longer period, but the Department was seriously anxious to get up on ' the arrears. The men had been offered employment in the workshops for three months to tide them over a bad period, and it was at the end of that time that they were put off. Since then a number had been restored, but he did not claim that as many had been re-en-gaged as were discharged. Tho Minister of Railways had been very sincere and very much in earnest in his efforts to provide as much work as possible, and had made a special effort to assist, men to work in the workshops.' PUBLICATION OF STATISTICS. Mr. Veitch said ho was sorry to hear that there was unemployment in the electrical trades, and he had been impressed by the representations. "I can assure you," be'said, "that the Government means to do its utmost to meet the unemployment situation. It is very regrettable, and we are all very sorry to hear the figures you have quoted. There is no special reason why the figures in regard to unemployment should not be made public. We havo never tried to hide them. There is a misunderstanding on Mr. Bromley's part if he believes the Government is trying to hide the figures." A Voice: "Can we have an assurance that.we will get them?"

Mr. Fraser: ''We always got them from the Coates Government. Surely your Government does not stand for suppression." Mr. "7«» itch: "I don't consider it is .".eeessary for them to be published. For Mr. Fraser to suggest we are trying to conceal anything is not in accordance with his usual standard of courtesy."

Mr. Fraser: "When we want to know how acute unemployment is we

naturally want the figures, and wo can't get them. Tho Government in England publishes the information every week." Mr. Veitch: "You aro quite entitled to your opinion on that point." "It seems to be a cloak for incompetence," Mr. Fraser remarked. Mr. Veitch said ho was sorry to hear that remark. No good purpose could be served by making such a suggestion. Ho was astonished that Mr. Frasor should say such a thing, for ho had always found Mr. Eraser most gentlemanly and considerate. Mr. Black: "Can you give a guarantee that the figures will bo published?" Tho Minister: "I will give a guarantee that the whole matter will bo considered by the unemployment committee. I will make no promise bgyond that. But I assure you that every member of the Ministry is really anxious to do all that tho financial position will permit in order to meet the unemployment situation. I am convinced that when the subject is considered by tho committee you will be satisfied that it is the determination of the Government to do everything possible to relieve the distress due to unemployment, which is the greatest of all distress." He said he was glad of the co-operation which the Department offered. LOCAL BODY ASSISTANCE. Mr. B. M'Keen, M.P.: "Why don't you get tho local bodies to co-operate?" Tho Minister said the difficulty" was that the local bodies balanced their year's finances at 31st March, and necessarily they had to curtail their unemployment relief expenditure towards the close of the financial year. They had been doing their best, and a great many of them had ever-expended in their endeavour to'afford relief, with the result that they were now obliged to dispense with relief workers. Mr. M'Keon: "They could have been kept on if you had increased the subsidies." Mr. Nash: "You had the remedy in your own hands. . . . It is your duty to see that they get the finance to .enable them to do the work." Mr.; Veitch: "Yes, I am speaking of the local bodies' revenue accounts. There have been no cases in which the Government has refused to pay out subsidies to local bodies carrying out relief works. We have done that all along. However, the point you raise is worthy of consideration, and I will see it is considered by the committee." Mr. Veitch said that the report of the Unemployment Investigation Committee was now in the hands of tho printer, and before it was published it would have to be distributed to Ministers for perusal. It would be considered by Cabinet very soon. Mr. Bromley asked what was the present position of unemployment' nationally.

Mr. Veitch replied that the returns showed a considerable variation in the last few weeks. The last figures were 2402 registrations over the whole of the Dominion. Four weeks age they were 4723. He realised that all the unemployed did not register.