UNEMPLOYMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 17 January 1931, Page 11

UNEMPLOYMENT

SUSTENANCE GRANTS REGULATIONS GAZETTED DUTIES OF PARTIES (By Telegraph—-Press Association; WELLINGTON, loth January. The regulations for the payment of sustenance under the Unemployment Act were gazetted to-night. They contain the following provisions: Any person having knowledge regarding the eligibility for sustenance of any person who is an applicant therefor shall, on the request of the Unemployment Commissioner, an officer of the Labour Department, a postmaster, or any other officer authorised by the Unemployment Commissioner, answer any enquiries addressed to him and shall fill up and return any form in accordance with the instructions thereon or accompanying it, which may be sent to him by such officer regarding such eligibility. Any person engaging any worker shall require such worker to produce to him liis coupon book or sustenance card, and he shall not engage any worker who is not able to produce one of these documents. If the worker so produces a sustenance card, the employer shall forthwith enter thereon the date of commencement of employment and on the termination of employment shall enter the date thereof, and shall sign the card in the place provided and return it to the worker. This procedure shall be followed on each occasion on which the employer proposes to engage the worker, notwithstanding that the same worker may be engaged on more than one occasion. No sustenance shall tie paid to any person until such person surrenders his coupon book to the sustenance officer or postmaster by whom the payment

is to be made. On such surrender, the grantee shall receive a sustenance card on which shall be entered particulars of the allowance granted. The grantee shall retain his sustenance card until his sustenance allowance terminates, aiul on each occasion when a sustenance allowance is paid to him, lie shall produce the sustenance card for the further payment to be recorded thereon. The grantee shall, on the termination render liis sustenance card to the officer from whom he obtained it, and lie shall, thereupon, have liis coupon hook returned to him. If the sustenance card is lost or destroyed, the sustenance officer or postmaster by whom the same was issued may, on proof to liis satisfaction by statutory declaration or otherwise of such loss or destruction, issue a fresh sustenance card in lieu thereof, or may on return of the coupon book dispense with the surrender of the sustenance card proved so to have been lost or destroyed. Any person committing a breach of these regulations shall be liable to a fine not exceeding £5.

THE BOARD DEFENDS ITSELF

£85,000 FOR UNEMPLOYED

WELLINGTON, 15th January. Answering criticisms levelled against the Unemployment Board, a statementissued by the Board to-day says that it was never anticipated that the three schemes for temporary relief which the Board has organised would remove the hardship and suffering which is a natural sequence of such large-scale unemployment as New Zealand is experiencing at the present time. It is, however, worthy of note that these schemes, operating between the date when sfic Board was first called together and the end of the present month, will have resulted by the latter date in circulating into the pockets of unemployed workers a minimum sum of £85,000, which would not otherwise have reached there. This sum is equal to the levy receipts for one-quarter from approximately 227,000 contributors. “Unemployment as we are experiencing it to-day,” says the statement, “is an entirely different problem from what it was a few years ago, when it could be very largely accounted for by the seasonal nature of some of our industries. Quite a substantial number of the unemployed to-day arc divorced from industry as a result of technical improvements in our methods of production, and without the commencing of new industries or the extension of our existing industries, both primary and secondary, they have little chance of obtaining employment other than that which is organised as relief work.

SUSTENANCE PAYMENTS “The Board, having regard to the very serious dimensions which unemployment has reached at the present time, has for the past week or two concentrated on the preparation of rules for the payment of sustenance, if that becomes a necessity. .Sustenance ,P a y' ments, which at best must be limited, were never designed to do more than meet the physical needs of a worker during a brief period of unemployment. Neither by sustenance payments nor by relief works can justice be done to the unemployed, who are faced with the prospect of almost permanent- unemployment. “Two courses only seem to be open—either profitable employment must be found for those men in new industries, or by an extension of our existing industries, primary and secondary; or the work in our industries must be rationed to allow of a larger number being kept in steady employment. “With a view to carrying out a close investigation into the above alternatives with as little delay as possible, the Board has formed itself into three committees. WORK OF COMMITTEES “No. 1 committee will examine all the available evidence, with a view to ascertaining the possibilities of creating new avenues of employment through the primary industries, and will endeavour to find the best methods of providing assistance, and the extent to which assistance can be given, towards increasing the productivity of lands, which at the present time are idle or are not being used to their full productive capacity. “Committee No. 2 will follow the same procedure in relation to the secondary industries, and with a view to ascertaining what, if any, new industries are possible of establishment, and similarly devise how and to what extent satisfactory economic assistance could be profitably given to the extension of development of existing industries, always of course, with a view to providing employment for a greater number who are unemployed at the present time. “Committee No. 3 will investigate the economic and financial prospects of de-i velopin'g industries or extending industries, and also give , some thought to the possibilities of rationing employment as ail immediate alternative.”