The Sun TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1927. £2 A WEEK FOR FOURPENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 226, 13 December 1927, Page 8

The Sun TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1927. £2 A WEEK FOR FOURPENCE

THE Council of Christian Congregations in Auckland lias given complete and cordial approval to a proposal to introduce a system of unemployed insurance into this country on the lines of the British system. Tt is a laudable movement in principle, and one for which no apology is required. The relief of unemployment and demoralising social distress is essentially a vital part of the good work of the churches. It may be said, however, without pouring cold water on the scheme, that this body of churchmen is more fortified in sentiment Ilian with the support of actuarial soundness of its unemployment insurance plan. A conference oi: representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, the Employers’ Association, the Rotary Club and the Trades Hall unofficially approved the broad principle of national insurance against unemployment. And it is intended to hold a civic meeting on the question. All this is worthy of earnest community support, but the public should not go blindfolded into the movement. There is need of open-eyed alertness. So far, in Great Britain, the experimental scheme ol national unemployment insurance has been a great success only lor idealists and those sentimental optimists in every-community who believe, that, if a humane system of unemployment relief is provided for by legislation, everything in this world is a commendable preparation for the next. But, to those in Great Britain who .look at things as they are in stark reality, the national system of unemployment insurance has wrought as much social harm as it has done good. It certainly has led to the expenditure of a colossal sum of money on the relief of social misery due to idleness, but it has not contributed a penny piece toward the creation oE more employment. Together, with Poor Law expenditure, Great Britain has spent £500,000,000 since the World War on the relief of the unemployed, and the indigent poor whose po\eity and sickness are largely the result of unemployment. If the money had been devoted to quite practicable schemes for the. establishment of new industries, the construction of roads, and the cultivation of land which has fallen into neglect, there would have been little need for unemployment insurance. It is estimated by the optimists that a weekly contribution oi 4d each from worker, employer and tlie State, making a shilling in all, will easily provide a payment of £2 a week for every unemployed adult male worker with two dependants, and lesser benefits to other workers without dependants This scale, it is to be feared, would fall far short of the actual cost in practice. There are 134,000 proprietorial employers in the Dominion and about 402,000 wage-earners. The weekly unemployed total at the peak of unemployment for several years past has exceeded 2,200, confined to the Government bureau applicants. East winter the total was more than twice as many. If half of the number were to be paid £2 a week, while unemployed, it would not he worth a general labourer’s while to remain employed for £3 a week (making allowance for broken time). What is wanted first is a scheme of employment. LOCAL POLITICS THOUGH Parliament is in recess and the “tumult and the shouting die” in regard to such questions as the Bible in Schools, Licensing and Prohibition and the Gaming Amendment Bill, there is no cause for those who love political discussion to be downhearted. For the local bodies we have always with us, and their ways are ever entertaining. The latest of these minor parliaments to be flooded with the limelight of public attention is the Glen Eden Town Board. A few days ago a public meeting in the flourishing western suburb decided by a majority of a hundred-odd to something under ten that the board was not progressive enough for so modern a community; that the only enterprise it showed was in the raising of rates, for which it was alleged the ratepayers received no return, and that it was time the board resigned as a whole, and gave way to more satisfactory representatives of the ratepayers. This resolution was conveyed to those concerned at its meeting last night by a deputation claiming to represent 95 per cent, of the ratepayers, when it was “left to the good sense of the board to retire in a graceful manner.” But the board did no such thing. It challenged the representative character of the meeting which had assailed its walls and the deputation which attempted to storm the breach. There were only two dissentients to this decision, and one of them gave liis chairman the lie direct, because when he asked if he had ever been disrespectful to the chair, the chairman replied: “Yes, you have—several times.” Piquancy was added to the discussion when several ratepayers joined in, and displayed extreme reluctance to accept the chairman’s advice to express their opinions outside. One gentleman told the chairman that the board was “a laughing stock,” and indicated his belief that the description of the chairman as “a junior Mussolini” was flattering. Entertainments such as these relieve the tedium of the long evenings for suburban ratepayers, and the board’s refusal last night to resign should be welcomed as providing opportunities for further fun. There is a by-election for the board on December 22. It should be a merry affair. IMPROVED DOMESTICS THE girls of Australia should soon be freed from the reproach of being entirely undomesticated and utterly ignorant of the art and mystery of cooking. A mansion in London has been equipped as a training school for girls who are later to voyage to Australia in the guise of “domestics.” Accommodation is booked tip for months ahead. It is going to take from six to ten weeks thoroughly to instruct these girls in domesticity—showing how extremely difficult and complex are such accomplishments as those of scrubbing a floor or grilling a chop. When the trainees are trained and arrive in Australia as assisted immigrants, they will surely feel too superior to the ignorant Australian girl to become domestics in those households wherein the unaccomplished Australiennes idle. Positions will have to be found for them as instructresses in domesticity, wha* the local product will be shown its inferiority. fetill, it will be good for the Australian girl, and we may expect a gradual increase of domestic knowledge in the Commonwealth. It is particularly interesting to note that Sir James Parr, High Commissioner for New Zealand, is to visit the school. He may think it a fine thing to establish one for New Zealand, too. 1 lie New Zealand girl is frequently accused of domestic ignorance, too. It is really wonderful how, with all their inability, these girls make such excellent wives and mothers,