SPENDING THE WORKER'S MONEY?

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 28, 27 October 1937, Page 4

SPENDING THE WORKER'S MONEY?

The experienee of the State placement service in trying to find farm employees is illuminating, says the Auckland Star. Of 326 xnen, 65 re. fused to consider country work. , The percentage of refusals was not remarkabiy large, but when 42 men who had not refuscd were offered specific employment only nine accepted. The others took the risk of being struck off the sustenance roll. % One conclusion to be dcawn from these facts is that the men who are prepared to forgo sustenance pay--ments rather than work in the country cannot be in great need of State support; they have been drawing State money because it was easy to get. But perhaps it is migleading to speak of it as "State money." It is wage-earners' money, compulsorily contributed by workers of whom many, owing to the increasing cost of living, are iljl able to afford .it. The strong indications, such as that under notice, that some of the fund is^ being dissipated in payments to men who, if they wjant work at all, will accept it only at their own terms, are giving rise to a keen sense of grievance. Either the wage-tax should be reduced or the expenditure of it shoudl be restricted to cases of undoubted need, and the surplus used to build up a reserve for the time when the revenue will be less buoyant than it is now.