NOT WAGES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 314, 30 August 1932, Page 5

NOT WAGES

RELIEF PAYMENTS | CHAIRMAN GF UNEMPLOYMENT BOARD OUTLINES | POSITION ;» j AFFORESTATION POSSIBILITIES i | In a special interview with the ; "Morning Post" yesterday, Mr. L. j S. Jessep, chairman of the Unemployment Board, who is visiting Rotorua, made a statement which j clarifies the Board's view on genj eral policy matters and indicated >1 that the Board was making eveiyy endeavour to eke out available ; funds to the best advantage and t'hus avojd further taxation. He nko indicated that, in his opinion, lj the Afforestation activities m the j Rotorua distriets could he extended under unemployment schemes. The unemployed in each locality, Mr. Jessep -said, are being carried by those eitizens who, either from past savings or from their reditced earnings in ordinary- industry, are eontributing* through the Unemployment Fund towards the support of their less fortunate fellows. The measure of relief is obviously regulated by the eapaeity of the community to bear the taxation which is the source of the fund; and evidence it not wanting that the resources of the community ai;e already strained to the utmost. Tlie payments made to unemployed fvom the fund are not pretended to "be wages, but merely relief to supplement the individual's own efforts to secure for himsclf and his family food and sheltor during a y.^riod of extraordinary difficulty. P/ork Necessary It lias been laid down by the people, thro,ugh Pnrliament, that the relief nrx.de available from tmemployment taxation must be worked. for; , and, as a matter of policy, several other primary considerations are kept in view by the board in its trusteesnip of the fund. 1 These are that the mohey should reaeh those whose degree of rehl need for help is greatest; that the woi*k done should as far as can be arranged, be of a productive nature; and that regard must be had for the effect produced on the character of the men themselves by the nature of tlio worlc and the manner in which it : is given. An important consideration which r also must not be overlooked is the danger of cutting aeross normal industry by approaehing too closely with relief to the average earnings in industry. It is a fact that in respect of at least two large industries the PPargin is already dangerously narrow. It would be a disastrous eensequence of the present situation if people reeeiving relief became permanently satisfied with that ctmdition, and lost all ineentive to relieve their fellow eitizens of the cost of keeping them. f It is not generally lcnown that the measure of relief being given in New j Zealand is higher than that given in I any other British Dominion, if not in | any other part of the world. During , the present winter it has been inj ereased, but must necessarily be reviewed as the spring comes on. Rotorua Foss'hilities Referring to matters of local interest, Mr. Jessep said that in his opinion the Rotoi'ua district offered great possibilities for the useful emoloyment of surplus labour, The State Forest Service plantations had grown to such a size that they could not be ignored, especially in view of the fact that the larger plantation units were the better their chances of dommereial success. The industrial utilisation of forest products could only be carried on when there were large contiguous areas to be drawn on for raw materials. ! Mr. Jessep expressed the hope that j next planting season, should the need ' cxit for large unemployment relief works, it would be possible for still closer collaboration between the .Forest Service and the Unemplpyment Board.