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Hokitika Guardian, 29 September 1931, Page 4

Commenting on the unemployment problem a southern paper says the question for consideration is not now to finance unemployment, but how to re-a.bsorb in useful and productive occupation the tens of thousands who have been deprived of this opportunity of working. The experience of Great Britain with respect to unemployment relief lias bred a very natural distrust of thie dangers of sustenance payments, and it may he suggested that taxpayers in the Dominion will be considerably reassured by tlnis latest proposal, which establishes an additional safeguard against the possibility of a recourse to the system that has been followed in the United Kingdom. It is possible to argue that in the early stages of the unemployment crisis in this country the remedial measures that were adopted wejre not altogether unwise. They were not necessarily anybody’s choice. Stern necessity was the spur that forced the Unemployment Board to the decisions it made. It must, how. ever be generally recognised that a continuauoe of the Board’s original policy would be wholly uneconomic. The exigencies of the position demand the expenditure of a huge sum of money which the country cannot afford to waste on unproductive work, more especially sinctej opportunities for a more profitable use! of the funds available are not lacking. It was not to be supnosed at the outset that hard and fast rules could be laid down for the handling of the problem and the rap-idit-v with which the volume of unemplovmerit increased compelled the adoption of schemes that could he swift ly organised. The success, however, of any programme of relief depends upon a.ni intelligent adaptation of effort to a changing situation, and. while thte view must be held that the revision now proposed 4 should have been made a long t-ime ago, the UnemploymentBoard is to be com mended upon at la-st making an effort to secure some adequate return 1 for it immense outlay. With the pr. spect cf expenditure j on employment relief continuing for ( an indefinite period, it has become essential that a method shall be employed ' of applying the relatively huge amount that is appropriated for relief purposes

in a way that will have the desirable effect of assisting industry and promoting production.