RELIEF SYSTEMS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1932, Page 12

RELIEF SYSTEMS

LAND THE BEST

GREAT POSSIBILITIES

AND NATIONAL RETURN

New aspects of the unemployment problem and its possible solution were referred to by Mr. H. D. Bennett in an address yesterday afternoon to the conference of the New Zealand Master Grocers' Federation. He urged that full support should bo given the principle that the difficulty should bo dealt with by placing as many men as feasible in farming pursuits, to the benefit of both the individual and the Dominion as a whole.

In his reply to the deputation from the relief workers, the Minister in charge of unemployment relief, the Hon. J. G. Coates, repeated a statement he had made at Auckland to the effect that ho was working at a scheme by which the unemployed would find permanent work, and indicated that his scheme would be announced very shortly, said Mr. Bennett. Mr. Coates's remarks suggested that the labour would be directed in support of the primary products.

The Minister's remarks had created a great deal of interest, and the development of the nature of the scheme was being anxiously awaited in many quarters. Apparently Mr. Coates was laying himself out to handle this vexed subject on a scale never befpro contemplated. It would perhaps be too much to expect,quite so : much as his published remarks would indicate, but it was clear that the Minister had got something pretty big under way. Such a vital social phenomenon as unemployment on a large scale was something new, not only for New Zealand, but for the , world. Politicians, economists, and statesmen all over the world were grappling with it, but the trouble grew on. - "Had Mr." Coates's statement been of the nature of the ordinary stereotyped one such as we have of ten heard, little notice would be taken, but there is a ring of vitality about a proposal to apply this mobilised labour to the development of our primary production," said, Mr. Bennett. "In this respect the field for activities in New Zealand differs from that of the older countries. There also the complaint remains unchecked., • . '

GREATER PRODUCTION.

"We live on the exports of the product of the land. Each cultivated acre has its chart of production. Not one has yet reached full capacity. Every acre, even the most improved, can do with the services of more labour and money, another root, or another blade of grass. Forty thousand pairs of hands, fifty thousand pounds available per week from the special unemployed relief funds, with a background of four or five hundred abandoned' farms and thousands of other acres of undeveloped land should give anybody good material to work on;

"It would be interesting to speculate as to what Mr. Coates has got in his mind/.' he continued. "The possibles may be set out as under:

First: To invite farmers of all kinds, pastoral, agricultural, dairying, and fruit, to take men for their keep, the Unemployment ' Board to pay a small wage of, say, one pound per week. This should absorb all the single men. Second: To , re-man all abandoned farms with married men on a:basis of rigid financial • nursing till the occupant can take over, the. assistance given no£ to be a. charge. ' Third: The releasing of all fully or partly improved prison farms in the centre of the North' Island to assist-

Ed farmers. . ' : Fourth: To apply a little more vim into the matter of (a) subdividing suitable large farms and (b) opening up new country. .

"No one would, of course, be stupid enough to suggest that this big bulk of inexperienced labour could be safely installed on farms and be expected to make good; but that disadvantage can be largely overcome by reasonable treatment. ,

• "The whole question naturally involves finance, the obstacle common to all previous efforts. What is giving new life and new possibilities is the public awakening to ' the notorious Waste now going on under our present system in the name of No. 5 and other schomes. True, we were driven- to any course as temporary expedients, not knowing for how long, but using our limited resources for scratching up footpaths, cutting gorse, and making play areas is too ridiculous for words.

"Our present rate of expenditure will do' a Very great deal under headings one to three," said Mr. Bennett. "We. have decided to tax for the money, so why not let us do some sound thinking. Our present system has for its virtues, not so much national efficiency, as a more or less pious determination to avoid the introduction of the Tlole; It will probably be'fouitfL that the .scheme at present • threatening as a Ministerial surprise packet will be built up on similar lines. If so it is assnred. of public support."