WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 19 March 1930, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

UNEMPLOYMENT

COMMITTEE’S REPORT

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, March 17

The worthy Mayor of Wellington and many of the editors of newspappers are strongly denouncing the proposals of the Committee, set up iby the late Reform Government and continued by the present United Government, to report. uponV the unemployment’problem as it has been presenting itself in the Dominion during recent years. It seems that their attention has been occupied mainly by the paragraph in the report headed “Employment and Sustenance Fund,” in which it is suggested that a million or 1 so should be raised by widely distributed taxation for the relief of idle hands either 'by the provision cf work or by monetary assistance. The Mayor appears inclined to accept the “dole” as the only effective means of mitigating the recurring evils of unemployment, but the " editors, for the most part, see in this panacea onlj an aggravation of the evil. Just what their own cure would be they do not make at all clear, but it seems to suggest in a general way harder work and less pay. ,

NO MILK AND WATERY SCHEME

As a matter of fact the Committee does not anticipate that more than 10 per cent of the Employment and Sustenance Fund would be expended merely in relief work. The Minister of Labour, who has examined closely the proposals of the Committee, thinks even a smaller proportion of the fund would be required in this direction. There is nothing milk and watery about the proposed scheme. “An unemployed worker,” it proposes, “to be required to accept any suitable employment offered by the Labour Exchange” to be established by the Government. “Any worker offered what the Board deems to be suitable work and refusing to accept same, may be /refused or deprived of benefits lor such time as the Board determines.” “On any work provided by the. Board or public authority not less. than minimum award rates of wages to be paid to all ‘competents’ who are cmployed on those works.- The word competent is emphasised and its meaning cannot' be misunderstood or misconstrued.

TRAINING. The Committee does not prescribe a temporary scheme that would merely carry idle workers over a dull period of the year. It would have work of a remunerative character found for everyone that was physically fit anxious to be self-reliant. It would have competent workers found jobs at award rates and it would have incompetent’Workers given an opportunity to qualify for the same relief. “The Board to have power,” it proposes, “to arrange for the training of workers to enable them to take and competently perform any work in certain industries, including rehM works. .■ , The rates of pay for such workers decided by the Employment Board; provided that a worker employed on such training be paid no less than sustenance rates of benefit provided by the Board.” Many other provisions are suggested for the maintenance of the self-respect of the workers and for the quality of thenservice, which, of course, would ultimately determine the fate af the scheme.

THE TRIBUNAL. The first report of the Committee runs into thirty-four pages of closely printed matter and the second report into thirty-six pagtis. It would be too much to expect the average elec toi to assimilate and digest such a mass of reading, but it is the plain dutv of every member of Parliament to study closely the recommendations of Mr W. •!• T>. Hunt and his colleagues. The report, it is desirable for the reader to remember, does not represent in detail the opinion of eveij member of the Committee. It is, in fact, a compromise on the part of seven earnest, capable men who realised the vast importance of thentask, and determined to reach a unanimous conclusion. Employers and workers were equally represented, while the Government Statistician and the Under-Secretary of Immigration occupied the other places. It was a gathering that should be of far-reach-ing consequence to the Dominion and it will be deplorable if its labours should prove to be thrown away upon the politicians.