GOVERNMENT NEGLECT.

Grey River Argus, 17 February 1927, Page 5

GOVERNMENT NEGLECT.

OF THE UNEMPLOYED. Forces Auckland Committee to Disband. WELL OVER THRLn THOUSAND WORKLESS. AUCKLAND,’ February 16. The Auckland .fitizens. Uncpiploy ment Committee formed last June, de cijled to-day to disband amt to plac< the onus for the relieving! of the Un employment problem upon the. Govern mpnt. 11 was resolved to notify the Prime Minister of this decision during his com ing visit to Auckland on Friday am! ; “ -n him that the Committee coulo no longer perform any useful service in view, of the Government’s apathy toward its activities. When the Committee met, it was an nounced that the Mayor, Mr. Baildon would not be present. It was also announced that the Assistant Town Clerk ■had resigned his position as Secretary to the Committee, owing to the pres sure of other business. These two circumstances worn taken to mean that the City Council intended to drop out from the committee’s actiStrong criticism of the Government h attitude was voiced. It was stated that the total number of unemployed in Auck land province was. now over three thousand. ‘ ‘ FLOGGING DEAD HORSE. ’ ’ MIGRATION ADVOCATES ADMISSION. SYDNEY’ February 16. Doctor Ingram, Bishop of London, ar rived at Sydney to-day. Discussing migration, he said, he finds that he. had been ‘ ‘ flogging a dead noise. He add ed that there* is no enthusiasm (in, Australia over immigration, while the trades unions were against it. RAISING OF FL’NDS. AUCKLAND, Feb. 16. A scheme to raise funds by- art unions to provide work for the unemployed has been submitted in the form of a notice of motion to the Auckland Unemployment , Committee, by Mr E. Sharp, secretary’ of the Auckland li.e--1 urni'd Soldiers’ Association. It will bo. considered by’ the committee next Monday. Outlining the scheme, Mr Sharp S’pys lhat art unions of short duration could he held every' two months. The necesr saty tickets would cost Is, and selected unemployed men could be emp’oyed in. selling them. The prizes would be. say, £5O, £25, £5, and twenty ef £l. totalling £lOO, for each art union, from ' which, he believes, very largo sums could be raised without difficult?’. The profits, he .co.nsiders, shou'd bo subsidised by the Government, and the whole sum would be handed ’■> rhjv r trustees! say, the Mayor 'of Anckpr-1. th? chairman of the ,Ha ebony ihanl. and Mr. E. Phelpnd (who is secretary ol the Timber Workers’ Union), who would allocate it to Hie local bodies, which would expend it upc n work for which the uneniplqyed of. their oy.'nj districts -would have the first cluing COCKSFOOT CUTTING. CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 1) ‘‘There is a splendid opportunity for unemployed, single men particularly, with any initiative whatever, to ma'-.e nuch more than tho Arbitration Court’s award rates if they’ are prepared to work,” the Hon A. D. M’Leod said in Christchurch. ” Along the railway-lines and along every road, from Dunedin northwards, especially in tne Oamaru district and near Waikoyiaitj, ’ ’ he added, °there is any quantity 7 of cocksfoot of first-class standard ? ready to be cut. Permissioi. would be given only too readily to men who wish to get work. The cocksfoot at present is simply going to.waste, and it is very regrettable, to sec such a waste of such a . magnificent asset. There are considerable demands for (cocksfoot in the v North jslapd. Wo import, I think, about £60,000 worth

of cocksfoot y-very year, and pound of locally-grown seed gives, in fodder results, more than two pounds of imported' seed. Cocksfoot is growing in many a little reserve in many a nook and corner belonging y.u local bodies. I cannot imaging any If cal body or governing body 7 of any kind preventing men, in these times, from making use of an asset that

goipg to waste. ’ ’ WELLINGTON, Feb. U All the signs poipt to the existence within a few weeks of an unemployment a problem of abnormal dimentioiin throughout New Zealand \says . tiic *'N.Z, Worker”),. The problem as it expressed itself last winter in substw'intial degree, .still awaits solution, many being out of work in all the large centres, and little is being done either Dy Government or municipal action or public subscription to'meet it. This is bad enough, but ominous reports from many 7 quarters show that worse may ot expected. The dismissal of workers from tho

motor works at the Hutt and the threatened dismissal of tradesmen from the Railway Department foreshadow an alarming state of affairs, and the constant inflow of immigrants, ‘'brought here with not the least pretence at organisation to meet their necessities, can have no other effect than to acc<m tuate it. We may well ask why the Government which ei.wmrae.-s ass, st el immigration should through its mi way Department dare to consider the dismissal of its workers. The Government’s policy at prosen. and for some time past has been one o masterly inactivity. Affirmation of tte existence and gravity of the problem has come not only from the ranks ot Uabour, but from quarters from whicn the Government gets political snppotL vet the Government does nothing. - a hP-nllv, as the’Government, which is responsible for the trouble, does nothing, private mihvidnnls ■ sious to assist are discouraged, ami the * problem is thus left to carelessness and

haphazard. Tho position is thoroughly ] unsatisfactory. s The Rev Jaspar Calcfer, Auckland's ! prominent social worker, at a meeting ( of that city’s unemployment committee, j used words of condemnation oi tne Government’s inaction which every- j body in touch with the problem must j approve. “I am afraid/’ he said, - “that the members of the committee i were disgusted with the Governmen! for its disgusting apathy. I feel nothing but unbounded contempt lor a Ministry which refuses to face facts as they are, that shelves and shuffles, and attributes the discontent of hungry, men to merely political causes.’’ This language expresses the mind of decent people admirably. The Government’s “disgusting apathy” is proof that the object of immigration is the creation of a sur ( plus of labour with which to menace the workers’ living standards. If the Government paid one-half the attention to the provision of work for those who need it, as it gives to welcoming the nuke, there would not be an im- , .employed man in the Dominion within . a fortnight. But it lacks the will. y