SENDING UNEMPLOYED TO RURAL DISTRICTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 275, 10 February 1928, Page 9

SENDING UNEMPLOYED TO RURAL DISTRICTS

TRIFLING WITH POSITION* INQUIRY BOARD SUGGESTED PUBLIC WORKS READY It is not ascertainable yet exactly what steps will be taken by the Government in the relief of unemployed in the Auckland district. The proposal to men on the land is received with mixed feelings, and the programme of public works has not yet been mapped out. TT is stated by the Forestry Service that the planting operations do not commence till about May. and until then the 27 men at Riverhead are as many as can be carried for the work available. “If the Government wants to spend the money we can find the roads to work on.” said Mr. Campbell, district engineer at the Public Works Department, “but so far no programme has been mapped out for us to go on with.” It was pointed out by Mr. Campbell that 160 men of the 1.000 assisted lust winter, were still on the job. The Public Works relief depended entirely upon how much money the Government was prepared to spend. So far as deteriorated lands are concerned, endeavours are being made to have a board of inquiry established to make a thorough survey of the position covering some months, and then formulate a concrete scheme for close settlement. The Minister *of Linds, the Hon. A. D. McLeod, is understood to be in favour of this if the right men for the job can be secured. The Minister will not attempt the form a board unless he is satisfied that he has tho men who will understand the requirements of such a commission. MISTAKE WOULD BE FATAL The impression gained to-day vas that if the intention of the Government was to attempt to farm the deteriorated land and the idle farms with unemployed labour, it was trifling with the position. On the other hand, there was expressed a desire to facilitate any genuine opportunity of success that might present itself, and the idea of the unskilled unemployed labour preparing the land by clearing for others to take on later was greeted with favour. The futility of placing unsuited and untrained men on the land was stressed by Mr. N. G. Gribble. secretary of the. New Zealand Land Settlement and Develepoment League, who said that this was a time when treatment of the light land and also the deteriorated land, was vital. A mistake made at this juncture would be fatal, and would have two effects: First, it would discredit farming as a business and, secondly, it would provide only a temporary expedient for the unemployment. “It is far better to have 1,000 welltrained workmen of any description,” he said, “than twice as many untrained or inefficient persons, whose end must be failure, and who, by that very failure, must prejudice the business in which they have dabbled.” Mr. Gribble expressed the conviction that there was a genuine demand for the one-man farm throughout the Dominion, bat ho MMfti that before a man could n«a farm ho must first be trained and then he must have at least £I,OOO at his command in order to get a fair chance to make the holding pay. FARM-FOREST SCHEME His scheme for the settlement of the land settlement problem—althougn elaborate and necessarily involving State aid—was theoretically attractive. When the Crown was opening up land, he said, they should zone the area with an afforestation section attached to each holding, so that the farmer could plant trees there and receive ready money from the State according to the work accomplished. Thie money would enable him to execute necessary improvements on his farm. The combined farm-forest, Mr. Gribble thought, was the ideal. “Whatever is done,” he added, “do not let us make failures of the land. The difficulty now is to get the people to go on the farms. Farming has to be made attractive as possible, but while things in the city appear rosy, the men will not go out to the country. “I am afraid that the position will have to become a lot worse before the people will be brought to a state of mind where they will make the necessary sacrifice to provide the necessary permanent remedy for the situation. Every additional advantage that is given to the city makes th<s position of the man on the ianfl more difficult.”

PLEA FOR NATIVE BORN STRONG MAORI PROTEST EMPLOYMENT OF FOREIGNERS None have a greater claim to the proud distinction of being New eZalanders than the Maoris. Te Akarana Maori Association members are perturbed at the employment of aliens while New Zealanders, brown and white, are in search of work. THE unemployment problem was do A bated at considerable length at last night’s meeting of the Association, the result being that a stronglyworded protest will be dispatched to the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. K. S. Williams. As New Zealand loan moneys are raised on the London market for the purchase of British materials and *he payment of wages to British subjects, it was submitted by one Maori speaker that only Britishers should be employed on public works. While the fact that so many ablebodied Maoris as well as their New Zealand pakeha brethren were unemployed, it was realised that the factors governing the situation were to a large extent economic. Yet work had been found for foreigners, some of whom were, of course, naturalised. Preference should be given to New Zealanders, Maori or Pakeha, it was stated, before foreigners. While the New Zealander spent his money in the land of his birth, it was also suggested that the foreigner invariably sent a fair proportion of his earnings, if not all, out of the country. It was resolved to draw the attention of the Government to the Maori viewpoint on unemployment, and ask that preference should be given to the born New Zealander before Austrians, Dalmatians or any other nationality.