TO REMOVE THE CAUSE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 352, 12 May 1928, Page 1

TO REMOVE THE CAUSE

State Deals With Unemployment WORK IN AUCKLAND FOR 500 Situation Explained by Prime Minister IT is not so much the finding of work for unemployed men that provides the major task, but the removal of the cause will be the chief difficulty,” declared the Prime Minister, the t. Hon. J. G. Coates, to-day, when speaking at Auckland on the question of unemployment. The Government, he said, was endeavouring to secure a statistical picture of the situation, so that practical organisation toward securing a permanent remedy could he undertaken. Work was being found in Auckland for almost 500 men.

A deputation representing 28 trade unions placed the situation before the Prime Minister, urging some system of unemployment insurance to deal with the problem permanently, as well as immediate relief measures. Mr. M. J. Savage, M.P., declared that the position in Auckland was worse than it had been two years ago, when a similar deputation had approached the Prime Minister. None must starve, whoever paid. Hospital Boards were doing their best for the distressed, but their task was too great. SOME EFFECTS Mr. E. J. Phelan, secretary of the Timber Workers’ Union, suggested that 2,000 men were walking the streets of Auckland —not 2,000 citizens of this ■ city, but many from outside. It was the belief of some that the city should father the out of work. He decried heavy timber importations. Mr. Coates: We have reduced them now. If we gave the timber merchants carte blanche, you know what would happen. Mr. Phelan mentioned the arrival of immigrants, and said shiploads were arriving still. “If we are to be fair, and to play the game by those people,” he said, “we should stop them altogether.” Mr. R. F. Barter, secretary of the Amalgamated Engineers’ Union, dealt with foreign manufacture of machines which could be manufactured in the Dominion —at a price. Mr. Coates: Yes; it is a question of the price. Mr. T. Bloodworth urged the release of State Advances money to stimulate building in the city, thus giving employment to many men. “There is still a shortage of habitable houses in Auckland,” he said. IMMEDIATE TASK The Prime Minister denied that shiploads of immigrants were coming to New Zealand, though admitting that isolated and separated families were migrating here —mainly at the specific request of relations or friends in this country. Improvement in the unemployment situation "would be slow, but he believed the tone to be easier now than it had been some months ago. The Government was giving the local authorities the same inducements as last year to find work for their men. and the work and expenditure of money were being decentralised as far as possible. When the immediate distress had been relieved, then could the Government consider schemes for permanent avoidance of similar distress when unemployment recurred in seasonal cycles. Work was being found for about 500 men in Auckland, and the forestry work here would absorb approximately 250. The view's of Mr. Coates in respect to the farmlet scheme as a solution the unemployed problem was expressed to a deputation which represented a public meeting called some time ago by the Civic League. Close settlement of small areas was advocated. Miss Basten explained that several schemes had been considered, but none definitely adopted. It was proposed to settle the pumice land in the Rotorua and other districts within the Auckland Province with distressed families. Mr. Coates: One of the questions I to be considered is whether the people you place on the land possess a rea-

sonable chance of making it a success. The first thing to do is to choose a locality which would be suitable for such a scheme, and consider the cost to the Crown, and generally formulate Mr. A. Harris, M.P., who introduced the deputation, explained that the advocates of the farmelt scheme were not aware what land was available. Mr. Coates: It is an easy thing to talk about land settlement, but it is a jolly different and more difficult thing to work out a practical scheme. Miss Basten: We were leaving that for the Government. Mr. Coates explained that the Government in dealing w'ith unemployment generally was endeavouring to classify the men who could not find work. This was a difficult task. The State was offering sustenance —it was meant to be nothing more than mere sustenance—but when the men were classified, the assistance of public organisations would be solicited. It was not so much the finding of work, but the prevention of unemployment which provided the major task. “We want a statistical picture of the situation, and then we will solicit your help,” Mr. Coates added. He did not believe in an established dole, because of its pernicious effect upon the people, but he anticipated that public committees operating upon v ie lines of post-war repatriation committees would accomplish much toward solution.