CURE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 604, 5 March 1929, Page 14

CURE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT

INQUIRY BEFORE STATE ACTION MASTER PAINTERS’ PROPOSAL (Special to THE SUN) WELLINGTON, To-day. That the cure of unemployment was not a matter for political action without first an inquiry by a suitable commission was the opinion of Mr. T. A. Wells, president of the New Zealand Federation of Master Painters’ Association of Employers, expressed at the opening of the annual conference in Wellington to-day. Mr. Wells urged that the committee set up by the late Government as a result of the National Industries Conference should be given every possible facility to complete its work. In his address the president referred to the serious effect of the depression upon the painters’ trade, except in those centres where local conditions had the effect of encouraging building activity. There were, however, unmistakable indications that the Dominion had entered upon a period of prosperity which must follow a release of money coming into the country as a result of the gratifying prices received for exports. There was the greatest necessity for caution in spending and the country must beware of being led into a desire for another boom. A period of high prices and large exports was well enough if the. people saved the surplus. Large loans for public works, railways or even land settlement could only be palliatives, said Mr. Wells. They could not in themselves overcome the consequences of the seasonal demand for extra labour which must always exist in a primary producing country. It should never be forgotten that New Zealand, far from the world’s markets, was nevertheless, largely dependent for its prosperity on the vagaries of those markets. So long as the country was thus dependent, and that must be for many years to come, there were bound to be ups and downs.