The Sun FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1929 THE SACK FROM SANTA CLAUS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 856, 27 December 1929, Page 8

The Sun FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1929 THE SACK FROM SANTA CLAUS

RIO one would wish to spoil the holidays of political administrators, but everybody outside the ranks of the United Ministry will condemn them for their callous dismissal of over a hundred temporary employees from the Otahuhu Railway orkshops on Christmas Eve. It was virtually the sack from Santa Claus, for the simple reason that the Government had assumed the role of Father Christmas. Indeed, the Administration had guaranteed a few months ago, when the extent of unemployment throughout the country was a record for New Zealand, that within six weeks from an unparalleled boast, not a man able to work would be out of employment. Although the public merely laughed at the Government’s ludicrous claim to the possession of wizardry, several Ministers since have had the fortitude to assert that the promised magic in making a quick end to unemployment has been performed. Moreover, these Administrators were so confident that the people had been dazzled by political conjuring that there was no necessity for disclosing information as to how the trick had been done.' Of course, the plain truth is that the United Ministry has failed to fulfil its promise—a fact which adds to its notorietv as a breaker of promises in other directions. And even where its guarantee to abolish unemployment within six weeks from the moment of perfervid boasting was partly carried out the weakness of performance lay in the lack of stability or anything like permanence of employment. Thousands of idle men were thrust on to expensive works without any great attempt having been made to organise for a continuity of work. The abrupt dismissal of a hundred relief workers at Otahuhu on the eve of a national festival proves conclusively that the political organisation of public works as a reliable remedy for unemployment has been inexcusably inefficient. The unfortunate men merely were rushed into the railway workshops in order to save the face of the embarrassed Government whose leader, now indisposed to a regrettable extent, impulsively pledged his Administration to the performance of a task that elsewhere is proving to be beyond the wisdom of great statesmen. In addition to the disconcerting experience of the “casual” employees at Otahuhu, sixty men similarly employed at the Lower Ilutt workshops also were cast adrift on Christmas Eve, much to the consternation of the new Labour member for the Hutt electorate. It may be placed to the credit of the Labour Party that it did not suggest to the Government that the dismissal followed on the result of the by-election as a sort of political reprisal.

Labour’s representations on the plight of the discharged inen were submitted to the Minister of Railways, but all that the Hon. W. 13. Taverner could say, in a reply from Dunedin, was to express regret and explain that the question had been referred to the Acting-Prime Minister, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, who now controls the employment, but possibly not the dismissal of temporary workers on unemployment relief works. It appears, however, that; before the Ministers scattered all over the Dominion for their Yuletide holidays the Cabinet Committee which was entrusted with the magical achievement of banishing unemployment in world record time directed the Christmas Eve dismissals on the plea that there was no justification for the men’s retention.

Of course, it may be contended on the Government’s behalf that, if there were no more work available at Otahuhu and Lower Hutt for the men so callously dismissed, the Administration had no alternative to dismissal on the ground of economy. Such a contention would have been more acceptable and convincing had the Government from the outset of the demand for relief works refrained from boasting about ability to solve a baffling problem. It would have been better for the country in every way if the foolish and supine Administration had made an effort to stimulate industry and promote private enterprise by making a substantial reduction in the grotesque load of taxation. The United Government has done nothing at all to help industry absorb the unemployed.