HOPE FOR THE UNEMPLOYED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 488, 18 October 1928, Page 8

HOPE FOR THE UNEMPLOYED

IF out-of-work New Zealanders turn their faces toward the new Unemployment Committee in the belief that, through its efforts, the spectre of unemployment will cease to dog their hrels, then the latest gesture may do more harm than good. The committee may gather much useful information; it may collate bewildering statistics—but it will scarcely claim direct power to disperse the unemployed. But there is a danger that, misunderstanding its functions, those in want may credit it with greater powers than it possesses. The announcement of the personnel of the committee seems to have been saved up by the Prime Minister as an especially attractive plank in the platform he expounded to the electors of Christchurch last evening. Just before the House rose Mr. Coates admitted that the constitution of the committee was practically determined, but he would go no further, and it must be assumed that he was saving it for an election tit-bit. The committee itself is most admirably constituted. Its six members are all sound and able men. If they approach their task in the proper spirit, the spirit in which the parties met at the recent Industrial Conference, they will do good, if only indirectly, for the cause of the unemployed in New Zealand. It is hard to see how they can effect any direct benefits. Their first specific task is to investigate the causes of unemployment, and most people who have studied the subject already have more than a vague idea what they are. They know that economic agencies, almost wholly beyond our control, have been the main factor. They know that immigration has been another, but to relieve the situation by expelling recent arrivals would be quite impracticable. The committee’s second task is to investigate the question of unemployed insurance. Apart altogether from the disfavour with which the Prime Minister is known to regard this principle, it will be next session, at the earliest, before such a method of alleviating distress could be introduced. By that time, it is generally hoped, the worst will have passed.