UNEMPLOYMENT IN NEW ZEALAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 477, 5 October 1928, Page 12

UNEMPLOYMENT IN NEW ZEALAND

THE PRIME MINISTER'S OPINION Although the position is by no means acute, the prevalence of unemployment in New Zealand cannot be doubted. Advocates of prohibition tell us that if their pet scheme became law, the twenty odd thousand people in the New Zealand licensed trade would quickly be “absorbed by other industries.” They fail to tell us what these industries are, and how it will be done, and when. The fast is that if prohibition were carried, another twenty thousand at least would be added to our numbers of unemployed at the beginning of next winter. Who is to look after their wives and families? In America, despite prohibition, there are more unemployed to-day than there were in the slump period of 1920-21, and 1,874,505 more than there were in 1925, according to a report to the U.S. Senate made by the Secretary of Labour, Mr. J. J. Davis, and published in the "Dominion” on March 28 last. The Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, speaking at Wellington on June 14, 1928, pointed out that whereas in the United States of America there were at least 1 in 60 unemployed, in New Zealand (under continuance) the figures were 1 in 300 at the outside. Thus New Zealand was five times better off than the United States of America.—Advt.