ERRORS OF RELIEF

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1932, Page 8

ERRORS OF RELIEF

. WHiAT EXPERIENCE TEACHES. AN ENGLISHMAN’S SURVEY. :- '"T." .. ( . LONDON, September’ 15. A* survey of the ' experience ' gained in' unemployment relief in byers-i*.? 'countries, wnii partiew.uriy in Cx«>v • iiUiiaiia, t ihsA&! by lVtr A. parson ttooerts, who recently returned' to Eng: land from a six months’ voyage, during which be bad studied the. methods of relieving unemployed in New Zealand, the provinces or C’ahadaVjiand the. United States. • orr-H CMr 5 'Robbrfcg begins by speaking of the British dole system, Bad as are shine of its 11 features, he considers it has' istoodi Great ' in ; 'gdod steady especially where it ' Represents a' true insdi'iiiice. The latter recommendation 1 , he finds, applies to' the “honourable and adequate support” given .to 60 per cent, of those out of work. Air Roberts

“Few other countries arc -so w«K equipped for dealing with such a trouble, and in many eases the percentage of workers unemployed if greater ithan with us—a comparison in which logs or gain '“tells twice on a division.” With us it has been a very ' pressing problem fur id years,' and before the war it was sufficiently pressing to claim the attention of Parliament. In other English-speaking lands, it is a new problem which |has dropped out of the blue on their unfortunate Governments. y : “The politicians of younger continents have not yet discovered that an insurance fund is the first thing to which they should turn in their''noVel dilemma. The idea that it can only work successfully by starting in a period when reserves can be accumulated, appears to have' ruled it' out in-,.,-some minds ; and our 'nfortunate mistake of 12 years ago has made many think’ thflt to embark upon insurance is to' commit themselves to'a dole,

MERITS OF INSURANCE... “True insurance and the dole, ate poles apart. If our insurance hadhpyer bee* mixed up with a dole it 'would have exerted no demoralising influence, and 'few, if any, of those abuses .with '.which We . have become so fanfiliff would b«ve risen. It .would be better if the Legislature in every country could grasp the facts that a welLjnliaf-; ured and well-administered insurance tends only to foster self-reliance and t)N© . spirit of independence, and that it is the first equipment which should be -acquired for combating unemploy,merit, even when the trouble has reached' an unprecedented level. It is under these conditions that we have restarted insurance., . '--v '•

nient, was until recently an unknown evil are. in groat danger of. making 'other mistakes’ quite as serious as pm dole mistake, and of doing: that wheh Iwili'. increase rather that reduce their embarrassment. Such at least. nr e the mipiessione ’ left, after six month® of observation, inquiry, and discussion of tTj'wi problem among . our brothers in distant Dominions and our cousins in the United States. • , . ■ :

•’The oa«e of the United; Stater claims our sympathy. A country which lately was in an enviable position and hardly acquainted with destitution ha? •iddenly to face unemployment about 50 per cent, worse than ours. No administrative machinery exists, and thp system of government is one under wihioh it is not easy to carry through the measures dictated by sound reason, Moreover, America is grievously hampered by the egregious a’lowanoes voted in the years of plenty to ‘veterans’ of the war. "V

‘‘The solution naturally suggested when the trouble first arises is, that ol undertaking public works,, of future- if not present value, to an extent sufficient to cover the shortage of employment. In ' those . younger countries, where the supply of work of this order is unlimited, it seems to be only necessary to urge nil public bodice to submit schemes of road improvement, bridge widening, bridges in place »f fords, land drainage, or other advantageous development. ■

WORKS POLICY TOO COSTLY. “In some of these cases the discovery has soon been .made that this, plait; is fm too costly, and partly accomplished works remain to greet the observer. I i,■ n/nvinents ; had before tjiem our experience with the dole, a.nd consequently the maxim ‘No .work, no 1 Ijay’ has nuled the policy of abme. In one, case, at least, the Government has ejected to assume responsibility fW" providing work, in preference to, providing maintenance, and has tied a burden about its neck by levying an ’ “ad hoc” tax—a tax wihich three months auo was in process of being from three to 12 pence on every pound any worker earns , ‘\And lpt it be noted that for a|, least 90 per cent. of. “tin?: people this I tax is far mom onerous than our income fax, which does not touch , tha small earners and seldom reaches the 5* per cent, level where the income is under 16600. There one could . see scores of toad 'and bridge improvements in progress where the existing provision would obviously (have sufficed qyxttp well ’ fot fhe traffic of the next 40 years at least. .... •/>,£» i’ “Whnf appears to the obs»rve.r as another mistake, made Homet'nieF /m a viicf, scale. is tHot of allowing the centnl or the provincial governmtnt ..to fix, not only the of. relrtf b"t also the scale of : pay for provided work; France' appears to stand alpp-- <•- one important case where ‘Vs cost'v errbr has bean avoided, -Wlw»t» *.wdCUlfMe' it 'it'll tho’tiaple * Industry, and