WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 29 March 1932, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM i SfeV,. ITS SOLUTION. tv |,s ■ (Special Correspondent). | E ; WELLINGTON, March 26. r Hie Government in general and the M blister in charge of the unemployment' problem in particular are being roufciJly rated at street corners anti amP * elsewhere for not yet havirfg. disiSm-red a “job” for every idle hairil reported to the authorities. M'hin seen this morning the R : ght 11 J. G. Coates —with his coat off by |st!ie way—said he was too well aw;tr| of tiie fact that numbers of hoijpst, earnest capable men were out of regular work. There were many liiofe unaccustomed to heavy labour to be cared for and there weijfc® some, happily a smaller proporthat did not seen eager to give fulSwnlue even for their scanty wages. MrgCo ites frankly admitted that when he pined hands with his present eollcaaues in the Coalition Government l:e Wound the Labour problem even grarer than he thought it to be. Close conl'gct had opened his eyes.

h? GETTING TO WORK. sh'Coates did not deny that he had heels* n little hasty in sharing his sclipyie of relief. It was a new experience® fo'r him and he had not been fulfe .prepared for its intricacies. His

Labour friends—all in good faith no doubt—built up the figure of a loan of twenty-five millions or so which was to set the whole finances of the Dominion in order and leave it as a complacent observer of the ti'oubles of other countries. This dream can have inspired no one who realised and understood the gravity of the situation; but it set a number of simple workers imagining they were being unfairly treated. It was to be hoped that this delusion was now. dissipated and that the Labour members in the House, from their leader downwards, would co-operate with other members in providing the best possible coi.ditions for the manual workers.

ON THE FARM. Mr Coates is looking forward hopefully to the time when a larger proportion of the present “relieved workers will be comfortably established on the land, either as farmers themselves or as prospective farmers of the future. This development, he holds, is not a matter of decades or even long years. The early settlers spent forty or fifty years in rescuing the new found land from the glorious wilderness their children and then children’s children brought it to fruition and another generation will reap its richest harvest. New Zealand, this optimist emphasised, w-as essentially an agricultural and pastoral countiy that could sustain five or six times its present population and still have I'cOfti to spare. Meanwhile its strength lay in the multitude and quality of its productions, in the veracity of the great mass of the people an in its belief in itself. They seem fair buttresses in the maintenance of the State.

SETTLEMENT. Having spent the greater part of his life on a farm, before lie turned first to politics, then to war, and finally to nation building, Mr Coates is satisfied that the greatness of this country lies in its soil. He docs not discourage other honest avocations than the tilling of the earth; ho thinks them all goods in their way; but lie regards the labours of primitive production, the sowing and the reaping, as the activities that are going to serve, this . country in the years to come. This is not to say that he would have the secondary industries ignored. On the contrary, he would have the secondary craftsmen in the community following his bent so long as it served him well. Meanwhile lie is giving close attention to the unemployment trouble and hoping that such suggestions as he will submit to Parliament in the course of a day or two will hear the fruit he desires.