WELLINGTON TOPICS. Unemployment

Hokitika Guardian, 25 May 1921, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Unemployment

THE. NATIONAL BALANCE SHEET.

■A HUGE SURPLUS

(Our Special Correspondent;

WELLINGTON, May 23

.The public have not yet bad time to grasp the full import and significance of the figures set forth in the Dominion’s annual balance sheet issued at the end -of last week. It is doubtful indeed if any considerable section of the community will attempt any such herculean task. The average individual will be content to read tbe head-lines in the newspapers, glance down the totals and take the rest on trust. There is a surplus of £6,-124,258, the revenue has increased by £8,117,020 and the expenditure. by £4,287,205. It is to tbe credit of the Acting Minister of Finance that these facts are plainly demonstrated in his statement. So far any one may run and read. But without the supplementary statements, which, doubtless, will follow in due course, it is impossible to determine exactly what the figures signify. Everyone knows that a surplus does not necessarily mean tbe Minister of Finance has loose cash lying at bis disposal, but in normal times it means the country’s income has satisfied its requirements and left something over. ECONOMY AND RETRENCHMENT. Rut now tbe public is being told that there is need, not only for the strictest economy, but also for tbe most drastic retrenchment. That this is really the position no one in touch with the commercial and financial world will question for a single moment. If the individual has been fortunate enough to escape any personal experience of the “money famine” be may count himself extremely lucky. With a .surplus of over £6,000,000 tbe largest on record and more than fourteen times bigger than tbe surplus declared for the year immediately before tbe war, tbe Dominion is beset by tbe gravest financial difficulties it ever has encountered. At this-juncture the Government is faced by the prospect of :au enormous drop in Customs duties and a considerable decrease in tbe receipts from income tax. It will not be surprising if tbe decline in revenue from these two sources during tbe current year amounts to as much as two-thirds of the present surplus, hi these circumstances it is scarcely necessary to further emphasise tbe need for economy. POSTAL SERVICE. In a statement issued by the Post Office authorities on Saturday the recent complaints of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce in regard to the dispatch of English mails arc dealt with at some length. It seems that there have been unfortunate delays and irregularities in the past and that arrangements have been made to. prevent these occurring in the-future. The contracts for the carriage of mails between New Zealand and Vancouver and between New Zealand and San Francisco, due to expire in July next, have been extended for another twelve months, and tbe contractors have submitted a time-table providing for an interval of fourteen days between each dispatch, with the exception that between every fourth dispatch and tbe next there will be an interval of twenty-one days. This arrangement, the authorities predict, will provide greater regularity than has been the case for some years, past. They claim that they already make a connection with the Suez mail from Australia whenever it will be of value to New Zealand. BANNED BOOKS. Further correspondence between Mill. E. Holland, M.P.. and Sir Francis Bell, the Acting Prime Minister, on the subject of banned literature has just been published. Mr Holland’s letter runs into twelve foolscap pages of closely typed matter, which the “Post” condenses into a column or so of print, but it does not appear to break any frerili ground or to present any new facts. Tbe three books to which tbe Labour Leader devotes bis attention are the “Communist Programme,” “Red Europe,” and “War—What for?” and be claims that the last two do not contain a single line that could by any stretch of biassed imagination be interpreted into an incitement to violence. He adds that since the prohibition of these works their circulation in New Zealand has increased enormously, and it has to lie confessed there is plenty of evidence showing this to be tbe case. In bis reply to Mr Holland’s belated retort, Sir Francis Bell, in a dozen lines, politely and firmly declines to review bis former decision.

CONDITIONS IN DUNEDIN. DUNEDIN, May -23. j Mr Browett. who is in Charge of the Government J .labour Department, re- ' ports that the number of work-seekers on his books is increasng, the total ths morning being 61, as against 25 a week ago. The Public Works Department is about to give some help in this matter. Mr Campbell, ther district engineer, lias notified the Labour Department that he is preparing to employ at least twenty-five men on irrigation works in Central Otago, and that the job will be ready within a fortnight. Returned soldiers are to have the preference. The Central Labour Office at present has on its unemployment lists about 20 carpenters, 5 electricians, 130 unskilled men, and 80 foundry men. Tho fact that a number of carpenters have left for the North Island has relieved unemployment here in that trade. The big Ixiot factories in Dunedin are still working only about half-time. This has been going on _ since 'tho end of February or the beginning of March, and apparently it is likely to continue until the stocks in the warehouses are appreciably reduced. Some of the men have temporarily left the trade for other oinpayment rather tlfan work the reduced hours. The hopeful feature in the boot line is that the Australian stocks that were dumped on to the New Zealand market are not being built up by"more importations to any large extent A few, but very few boots are I now arriving from Australia. Competition from America and England is not. seriously feared) here. The geographical handicap is in favour of lo-eallv-made boots, and in both the TTnit- ! ed States, and the Old Country wages ' are now so high as to limit the output j available for export.

Aa “Dunedin is the prinoipnl pentre of 1 the irop-foondng industry ip Do.