CALL FOR ACTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 780, 28 September 1929, Page 6

CALL FOR ACTION

MR. FLETCHER RENEWS APPEAL j UNEMPLOYMENT EVIL (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter) j PARLIAMENT BLDGS.. Friday. j As previously Mr. J. S. Fletcher, \ Government member for Grey Lynn, j once more defined in the House to- j night his position with the Government over unemployment. He is not satisfied with the way the Government is dealing’ with the problem, and demanded during the debate on the Imprest Supply Bill, that the Government disclose whether it had some constructive scheme tor the relief of unemployment. In connection with the problem, Mr. j Fletcher said that it was unfair to ] make comparisons between New Zea- j land and other countries. At least j 5,000 men were out of work in the } Dominion, and it was up to the House ] to solve the problem. In three! months 12,000 young people would | enter the labour market. He wanted ] to ask the Government before he j would agree to the passing of the Imprest Supply Bill what it intended to do. Although he agreed that the Government had done a great deal by means of the State Advances Department, the problem had not been solved in its entirety. As far as the immediate future was concerned subsidies to the cities would last a short time only. When they' had gone what then? (Hear, hear.) Mr. Fletcher reiterated his demand, and said that the question was not a party one at all. It was a question in which he believed the whole House was interested. A great deal had been heard about what the Government had done. As far as the Public Works Department was concerned for the month of August there were fewer men employed than during the corresponding month last year. Reform Members:, You are quite right. Mr. Fletcher continued that he had taken the department’s own figures. The Abstract of Statistics had said that 175 men in the building trade were out of work, but what was the position? He had received a telegram to the effect that there were 316 men unemployed in five trades in Auckland alone. The problem must be faced straight away. Mr. Fletcher said that he did not merely demand that the Government should do something. He had put forward the suggestion himself that part of the main highways funds should be capitalised. If that were done the sum of £6,000,000 could be raised in three years at the rate of £2,000,000 yearly. Work for three thousand men could be provided with this money, and relief would be given I to the counties and cities. It was the duty of the Government to give men work instead of offering them charitable aid and pauperising them. “I want the Government to consider the scheme i suggested—” Mr. C. H. Clinkard (Rotorua): You would have to amend the Highways Act. Mr. Fletcher said that three clauses would do that. If the Government had a better scheme he would gladly accept it. Something should be done straight away. STILL NOT SATISFIED ■ Not satisfied that the Government’s plans were adequate Mr. Fletcher expressed his disappointment at the Minister of Public Works’ reply. “The reply of the Minister, as far as I am concerned, is definitely unsatisfactory,” he said, banging his desk-top emphatically. “I am not prepared to go back and tell the people in my constituency of the potentialities of the South Island at some remote date. I want the Prime Minister tonight to give some assurance of what he is going to do, not in the dim and distant future, but what he is going to do right here and now.” Mr. H. G. R. Mason (Auckland Suburbs), speaking later said: “I have utterly lost any little hope I ever had in the Government,” he said. "There was so much talk from the very beginning that we could not expect much action. After hearing the speech of the Minister of Public Works on unemployment I have given up any little hope I had. The sooner the House and the country realise that position the better it will be for the country.” THIS SESSION LABOUR MEMBERS MAKE APPEAL RELIEF FOR WORKLESS Press Association WELLINGTON, Friday. The appeal made in the House by Mr. J. S. Fletcher (Grey Lynn) that the Government should face the unemployment problem, led to a longdiscussion on unemployment. .Members urged that something should be done this session. Mr. M. J. Savage (Auckland West) asked the Government what constructive proposals it had to offer. “They will tell us what they have done, but some of us have a pretty shrewd idea what they have done,” he said. “They have put 100 men on and taken 105 or 110 off. I do not say they have done that all the time. There have been rises and falls, but over a period the position is not getting any better.” Mr. Savage said he was not going to remain inactive and allow things to go on in the present condition. Unemployment insurance would help the position, but it would not strike at the cause of unemployment. What was the Unemployment Committee doing? The country wanted the Government to do something now. In addition to land settlement there were other ways in which the Government coLild help to absorb the unemployed, and he mentioned the Morningside tunnel, the Auckland Harbour Bridge and the Paeroa-Pokeno railway as works which should be undertaken. Mr. E. J. Howard (Christchurch South) said he had lost faith in the Government. It was just going on in the same old way. Mr. R. Semple (Wellington East) submitted that one of the gravest responsibilities resting on the shoulders of the House today was to open the door of opportunity to those people who could not find work. This session should not close until something had been done for people who were hungry ; and out of work. He urged an ener- | getic policy of land settlement and public works. After the Minister of Public 'Works had spoken the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Coates, said unemployment was not Parliament’s responsibility alone. He preferred to treat unemployment as a national rather than a

party question. Mr. Coates said no reply had been given to Mr. Fletcher, but the Minister seemed to have dodged the point. The United Party had promised that if it was elected to the Treasury benches unemployment would disappear like a mist before the sun. That had not happened. Men appealed to him daily to find work. Mr. P. Fraser (Wellington Central) supported the schemes outlined by his colleagues and by Mr. Fletcher. He declared that the people who had returned 19 Labour members to Parliament did not expect them to allow the session to end without some guarantee that the problem of unemployment would be dealt with.