Labour Asks that Unemployment End

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 627, 2 April 1929, Page 10

Labour Asks that Unemployment End

UNITEDS’ PROMISES NEED FOR INSURANCE (From- Our Resident Reporter) WELLINGTON, Monday. Whereas the United Party promised to abolish unemployment, the figures and resultant distress are greater than ever, says the annual report submitted to the conference of the New Zealand Labour Party by the National Executive. Unless the Government sees that reasonable rates are paid on rc*lief works it will be placed where the Keform Government now lies, says the report. If intermittent employment is inevitable, then an insurance fund should be established at once to sustain the children and mothers and to maintain the homes. Mr. J. Roberts rrlcrved, and Mr. R. Semple seconded: “That this conference regrets the failure of the Government to redeem its promises to find work for the unemployed and to pay the minimum rate. 14s a day, and demands the immediate provision of employment for the abnormal number of men now unemployed. Further, that legislation should be introduced early in the next session enacting a contributory unemployment insurance and the other recommendations unanimously agreed upon by the national industrial conference.” The resolution was carried. Land settlement is referred to in the annual report as one of the most fruitful avenues for improving the conditions of the Dominion and of absorbing many of those now unemployed. “It appears from the evidence,” says the executive, ‘‘that the Government has at its disposal a large area of land which can be profitably settled at a minimum cost, and the Labour Party in and out of Parliament will support in every way whatever steps are taken to develop the land and place settlers on it. MISTAKES OF THE PAST “The mistakes of the past in placing individual settlers with their wives and children on land from which an income is not immediately available should be avoided. Group settlement, with expert and competent supervision and full attention to roads and transport facilities should, in the opinion of your executive, enable many farms to spring up out of the present wilderness of fern, scrub and tussock.” The statement made by the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, two days after assuming office, that he expected to bring about a reduction in the lending rates on moneys advanced by the State to workers and settlers is briefly referred to in the report of the national executive of the Labour Party. “The evidence available is that while the Government has expedited the issue of the loans through the State Advances Office, it has failed to redeem its promise to reduce the interest rates. The proper organisation of credit is one of the essentials to solving the problem of unemployment.”