RIGGED FIGURES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 46, 17 November 1937, Page 4

RIGGED FIGURES

Mr Armstrong's latest version of the unemployment xeturns is extremely ingenious, says the New Zealand Herald. So much so, indeed. . that the Minister of Labour mnst be anxious lest anyone should take the figures too seriously. By various masterly stratagems and shifts, he has managed to reduce the total of the unemployed to 14,682, of whom 1863 'are not eligible for relief. Hence 12,819 are left to share a fund of £5,180,000, giving a dividend of £404 1/9 a yaar each. This may sound outrageous to the unemployed, who are certainly not averaging £8 a week, and to all those paying wiages tax to make up so huge a sum for Mr Armstrong's much smaller cohort of unemployed. Why does the Government collect so much money in "emergency" unemployment taxes when those out of work are now se few?. Mr jArmstrong may be the first to rush in with the auswer that he has to provide for 8499who are unfit for work and help to provide for another 10,000 whose work is subsidised, So the total depending on the fund rises from 14,682 to 33,181, and no amount of rigging will deceive the public. If the unemployment balanoe-sheet for November 23, 1935 — just before the election— had been cooked by exactly the same methods as those adopted by the present Government, the total unemployed would have been given as 28,742 instead of the 57,281 actually shown. Mr Annstrong would have been the first to laugh the responsible Minister, Mr S. G. Smith, to scorn for so transparent a piece of camouflage. Nor would the people ha,ve been taken in, any more than they are by Mr. , Armstrong's feat of accountancy. The Government should seriously consider whether it is not doing those out of work an ill turn by attempting to ndnimise the problem. It would be far better to face the facts. honestly. .Only in that way wpl a solufcion b« found.