UNEMPLOYED RELIEF

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 202, 19 April 1932, Page 6

UNEMPLOYED RELIEF

LAND SETTLEMENT MAYOR'S SCHEME EXPLAINED TO RGTARY CLUB COMMITTEE SET UP After thanking the Mayor, Mr. T. Jackson, for his very interesting and instructive address on unemployment and his scheme of land settlement, at the Rotary Club's luncheon yesterday, Mr. E. Earl Vaile moved that a special committee be set up to as;ist his Worship in the carrying out of his scheme. The motion was carried and a suggested committee comnosed of Messrs. O. H. Coleman, M. H. Hampson, J. Buddle and E. E. Vaile with power to add, was approved. In opening his address, Mr. Jackson said that unemployment was one of the most important problems of the present day, and that much could be done locally to assist the situation. Mr. Jackson said that ever since the beginning of the depression, when the first relief schemes were mt into operation, those who were responsible for handling the relief measures had been aware of the futility of what they were doing. The time had now come when ways and means must be found of improving oresent methods and it was no use publishing any scheme unless it was first analysed from every point of vlew. Mr. Jackson then mentioned his •;>wn land settlement scheme for un■mployed, which he said would mean :i complete revision of the present principles of land settlement, and ..he adoption of new and drastic remedies, but from which some results could be expected. The unemployed '.n the Dominion now totalled about 60,000 and some £50,000 a week of „he taxpayers money was being spent on relief. Some of the work being done was useful, but from an economic • point of view most of it was mere waste. It was also bad from a moral point of view. Help Back to Citizenship It was necessary to devise a means vliereby the relief worker would be returned to the state of useful citizenship and would develop his own iniatitive. Any scheme that would not do this would be useless. At present only palliatives were in iperation and they were in addition eostly to the taxpayer as well as causing discontent among the unemoloyed. Moreover, the present exoenditure was not suffieient to meet .he necessities of the workless. Mr. Jackson said that it was the duty of every responsible citizen to . ;ee that an equivalent return was received for the expenditure. He had proved by investigation that little relief could be expected from secondary industries as they were unable to absorb any appreciable amount of labour and the only feasible scheme vas one of land settlement.

The old theory was that unless 200 acres could be provided for each man, land settlement would be use- . less, but this would have to be revised. Success depended firstly, on ffie cost being not too great, and ;econdly, on the job being done quiclc,y. No scheme at present provided for those two essentials and old ideas would have to be reconsidered. The first fact that he wished to impress upon his audience was that ;here were 60,000 unemployed, and fhat fully 50 per cent, of them would aever get back to their normal occuoations. He also stressed the fact ;hat 12,000 children were reaehing chool leaving age each year and vould be going on the labour market: tnd unless they could be absorbed „he outloolc for them was liopeless. All Trades Available Another important point was that nembers of all classes of society were now engaged on relief work, and oractically every trade and profes;ion was represented in the unemployed l'anks. Most were as good fiuizens as anyone present, but uness something constructive was found for them to do, they would ieteriorate. To this end, said Mr. Jackson, they must focus their attention on land "iettlement. They had to remember, however, that they had before them the problem of settling practically oenniless people. He had given much thought to the matter and had :ome to the conclusion that the only way was by means of a communal oi :o-operative scheme. Mr. Jackson then briefly outlined his settlement scheme, touching on all the main points, and suggesting how economically such a scheme could be carried out. It would also obviate the tragedy of isolation, whi ch had been the drawback to all the oresent and past land settlement -,chemes. Under his scheme the relief worker of to-day would ultimately become the owner of his land, and instead of being a liability to the State would regain his status of citizenffiip, become a primary producer and be a valuable asseh