THE UNEMPLOYMENT FUND.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 129, 17 June 1937, Page 4

THE UNEMPLOYMENT FUND.

The public aceounts show that the contributions in the form of levy aiid taxes that were^ made in the past financial year to the Unemployment Fund, which is now, in a futile effort to get rid of a disagreeable word, called the Employment Promotion Fund, amounted to £4,224,963. As the proceeds of the taxatjion accruing to the General Revenue Account were £26,940,844, it will be seen that the sum of £31,165,807 — an enormous sum for a community so small as that of New Zealand — was extracted from the taxpayers during the twelve months. The unemployment tax was levied during the piast year on a reduced scale, but it produced considerably more than was yielded in the pre. ceding year on the higher scale, the amount that was collected being £4,224,963, as compared with £3,920,025. While the collections wero heavier, the expenditure upon unemployment' relief was, as fiar as can bo judged from the gazetted figures considerably below the amount that was expended in the preeeding year. But the aecounts may not supply all the information that is necessary in order that a clear understanding of the position may be obtained. It has been pointed out, for instance, that the expenditure on the administration of the Labour Department jumped from £44,9 ?0 in 1935-36 to £206,358 in the past year, and that, while the cost of the maintenanee of public works and services was £1,174,991 in the past year, it was only £145,942 in 1935.36, and it may be that the expansion of expenditure under these two votes covers provision of some kind for unemployment relief. ^ The fact whieh stands out so prominently that it cannot escape the attention of the taxpayers is1 that the Government, which was to have banished unemployment from the land in the spaee of a few weeks, extracted over four millions from the taxpayers last year for expenditure in the relief of unemployment and is still colleeting taxation for that purpose at the rate of eightpence in the pound.