NO EYE FOR THE FUTURE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 204, 14 September 1937, Page 4

NO EYE FOR THE FUTURE.

To-day our Acting-Minister of Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb, who has beyn deputising for the Hon. W. T. Arrristrong during the latter's long-drawn-out trip abroad, points with obvious pride to the fact that, with the co-operation of numerous public bodies throughout the country, he has been able to fmd work for some 6,500 of the 20,000 or so who are still on the register of the nnetnployed. A glance at the various works, as set utit by ^r Webb, upon which these mcn are to be cngaged shows clearly that once they are corapleted that wiil be tiie final end to them. In 110 case do they lead on to further employment of any substantial ancl permanent nature. They are, in fact, nothing more than a stop-gap and are in essence very rauch the same as those to which the previous Governriient had recourse at the depth of the depression years. This, rather tban being a cause of self-gratification, is surely a humiliating confessiuii to liave to make after a very marked recovery in the country' s economic conditions, begiiifling Under the old Government, has now been in progress for at least a couple of years. It furnishes a strange commentary on the pre-election boasts of the Labour Party leaders that, once they were given the reins of office, suoh a thing as unemployment would cease to be heard of in this land. It only adds to the irorly of the positiori that the source from which these works are being subsidised, so as to permit of payment of standard wages, consists in effect of the reserve nest-egg in the Unemployment Fund, which the Coalition Government bequeathed to their so prodigal ministerial heirs, Queer, isn't it, that in the days of prosperity the present Government should claim ctedit for lavishly spending the money that had been so painfully collected by their predecessbrs in office from the hardly beset taxpayers of the days of adversity ? But that is really what is being done by the Hon. P. C. Webb, who, on the other hand. tells us nothing as to what is to becOme-o'f these some 6,5ck) men when the jobs on which they are now being placed are. as he himself indicates, finished at a time when winter will again be closely approaching. ! As a matter of fact, though now in control for only three j months short of two years, our Labour Government have done practically nothing towards the permanent solution of the unemployment problem. As was pertinently pointed out at yesterdav's meeting of the Hawke's Bay County Councii, their almost sole recourse has consisted in a profuse expenditure of public money — largely extracted from taxpayers and ratepayers — upon public works of one kind and another, but nOne of them giving any promise of such returns as will help towards promoting profitable employment in the future. Their policy, if such it may be called, is merely one of living for the day, based on loan money and heavy taxation, with an occasional underhand injection of the "national credit" money that was going to telieve us of all our financial worries. For the promotion of the productive industries, from which alone the lasting salvation of the cOuntry and its wageearners can be hoped fof, practically nothing whatever has been done or is in prospect. On the contrary, the private enterprise which has, Under like economic conditions in the past, invariably blossomed forth has been very effectively frost-bitten by heavy taxation and harassing restrictions. with threats of more to cottle. While professing loudly to be acting in the interests of the wage-earners, the Government are in effect dDing their utmost to strangle the wage-payers. There can be but the one end to a policy that seeks to work along such obviously incongruous lines.