FAMILY ALLOWANCES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5018, 25 August 1926, Page 3

FAMILY ALLOWANCES.

“PERNICIOUS DOI®SYSTEM!”

“ MONEY WILD BE DISSIPATED.”

"My point is that there must be ; many better ways of assisting the lower-paid workers of New Zealand than to hand out Holes. Jn fact, it is a serious, reflection on the country aS, a whole to commence a .pernicious dole system, such as that proposed .in the -present 'Bill. If the proposal is carried into effect the sum of £2.50,000 per annum will be simply dissipated, and there will be nothing to show for it—not even extra babies.” The above further statemeut'oh’tne Family Allowances Bill was 'made -by Mr T, 0. Bishop, secretary o® ths New Zealand Employers’ Federation, _ in giving his personal views, on .the mea- - sure now before Parliament.

“Two hundred ,and fifty thousand p'er annum represents the/interest at 5 per cent, on -\a-;<?aptt?L;of iflve mil-, lions/’ said Mr Bishop. .‘‘Surely the Government is not so bankrupt of ideas that it cannoit conceive how such a sum cpuldj.be aßPjled f° r benefit ol the community without dissipating it in charitable aid. “I stated yesterday that, in my opinion, the Government might help the lower-paid workers; by assisting the development of industries, and refraining from imposing upon them additional burden, B ,-- l<?W ld like Stye instances of what II had in mind . “From 1920 to 1925, inclusive, the Railway Department imported almost the . whole of its coal supplies 'from Australia, while New Zealand mines were working short time; but as a result of an investigation ordered by the Minister the department is purchasing largely in New Zealand, and the result is : that in one mining district , the employees are. enabled to work one day a week more than they would have been able to work without the railway orders, and in other districts they are being substantially benefited, though not quite to the same extent. ' .

"The point is that by purchasing as much New Zealand coal as, can conveniently be used on the railways the Government has improv’ed the wages of a large number of mine workers by anything from 10s to 25s a week, and no one who kndws miners would doubt that they would rather earn the money by hard work than receive it as charity, even from the Stat®. "Another Government Department periodically invites tehdera for supplies of leather, and stipulates, English leather only, notwithstanding the fact that perfectly good leather is produced locally, and our tann'eriesi are not working to capacity. In fact, tanneries have recently been cldsed down for want of trade. I do not say that the Government orders of leather are large enough to affect tannery workers to the same 'extent as mine work? ers are affected by railway coalordefis, but the cases are parallel and the. principal the same.”