A WORK PLAN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 281, 22 July 1932, Page 6

A WORK PLAN

NEW PROPOSALS PREMIER STEVENS OUTLINES EMPLOYMENT SCHEME FOR N.S.W. PRIYATE ENTERPRISE SYDNEY, Saturday. The Premier (Mr. B. S. Stevens) made an announcement in a notable speech at the annual dinn'er of the Commercial Travellers' Association in Sydney last week, in which he interpreted the full meaning of the Premiers' Conference dscisions. "We do see daylight ahead," declared the Premier, to the accompaniment of resounding cheers. The arrangements for re-employ-ment works were set out by Mr. Stevens as follows: — Regular loan allotment .. £3,050,000 Special re-employment loan (part of a three years' . plan starting this year) .. 2,900,000 Winter re-employment loan (refused by the previous Government) 600,000 Savings from food-relief expenditure (out of the ls in the £ tax) now

spent on dole, but to be spent on works) 1.500,000 Tho Government, said Mr. Stevens, , intended to set up. at once an expert committee, repuesentative of all sections of industry, including the employees, to advise it upon all projects for the -use of the money. It was the aim of the Government to ensure that the works would emplay the maximum possible number and in time repay their own capital, or increase the yield of exportable goods. Private Enterprise, Mr. Stevens emphasised that it was to private industry that the country must look for the ultimate re-employ-ment of its people. "We do not want to create more permanent Government jobs, but permanent private industry so that emplayers shall 'employ more men and women — and then call for apprentices, clerks, accountants, typists — and even for more commercial travellers! (Cheers.) "Cabinet would, within a day or so, transfer from the dole to useful and productive work, 10,000 men in the city, and 5000 in the country. "By taking 15,000 men off the dole, we convert at once £45,000 a month into profitable employment. Special D'ifficulties. "We have endorsed the principle of motherhood 'endowment," the Premier continued. . "But we find that it is costing the State £2,000,000 a year, and that the fund is overdrawn by £2,140,000. He cited the terrific handicap plaeed upon the farmer by the fall in export prices, a fall which would have been much more serious had Australia not raised her exchange rate and Britain not departed from the gold standard. "There is still a wide gap to be bridged between costs and farm prices, and that is the task of the Australian Governments in th'eir longrange plans for solving unemployment," he continued. "We may perhaps count upon some rise in export prices from a general world recovery, but it would he folly to assume that such a recovery can bridge the gap.