The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1930 A TAX TO SUSTAIN IDLENESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 907, 26 February 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1930 A TAX TO SUSTAIN IDLENESS

WHERE experts are gathered together in political service there will foolishness he. This is particularly true as applied to the final work of the special committee which was appointed by the Government to investigate the ills of industry and, if possible, find a cure for unemployment. Half a dozen experts (or any other classification which fit§ their futility) have advised their State employers, who are sorely in need of advice, to tax adult individuals, commercial companies, industries, landowners and local bodies for the purpose of securing annually the larger part of a special fund for the relief of unemployment on the lines of practising for ever a new system of political quackery. The scheme bristles with vicious principles, and is not worth the reams of paper wasted on it. Everything that has been done so far to relieve unemployment in this country is condemned by the committee of amateur experts. And everybody associated with the various attempts at relief also comes under the lash for having failed >to apply effective remedies. The Government has failed to absorb the surplus labour, and has done nothing to stop the demand for absorption. Local bodies apparently have not been able to do anything much better. The Labour Department should give way to a representative permanent board of sages and efficient wonderworkers, and unemployment insurance schemes are unsound because the risk is incalculable. All these defects and strictures are in the committee’s report, either stated definitely or implied. This manifestly places the committee of experts in the position of a supreme council or final court of appeal on the subject of unemployment relief. It has become the last fountainhead of wisdom. And it has gushed forth a spate of suggestions for a bewildered Government in a wilderness of ineptitude. The committee, no doubt, expects to see its flood of recommendations run swiftly as a kind of river of healing. It is to be anticipated, however, that the stream will not flow far until it become lost in the hog of politics. An old truism says that it is the fate of those who sponsor schemes for unemployment relief to receive more brickbats than bouquets. Perhaps this may seem a harsh fate, hut usually it is deserved. The committee under criticism, whose mess of verbiage will raise more derision than delight, cannot he hailed as the odd exception to the rule. Its best service to the community, and its most appreciable act, is its retirement. The outstanding foolishness in the committee’s report is its proposal to transfer the present administrative futility from one centre of confusion to another. Instead of keeping control of unemployment relief in the feckless hands of the Government and the Labour Department, it is recommended that a new hoard should be established with power to exercise a controlling authority over any or all relief works established either by the State or by local bodies. To do this, it would be necessary to create a system of bureaucratic administration, easily capable of great expansion, and always involving a huge expenditure. It would have at least the merit of providing many easy billets for experts and their essential servants. Experience has proved that few experts in national affairs are able to work without a multitude of helpers. But the worst weakness in the committee’s scheme is in the recommendation to'rack the taxpayer to the extent of an additional million pounds (the State’s contribution to the unemployment relief and sustenance fund would come out of the taxpayer’s pocket also) without giving any sign, far less any guarantee, that the expensive permanent board’s efforts, which are nebulous on paper, would in practice, make an end to unemployment by removing the cancerous roots of the disease. And what is to be done for the distressed unemployed while the country waits for the building-up of the dole or sustenance fund? Perhaps they are expected to keep warm and happy by applauding the committee. There never will be a complete cure for unemployment, and there can only be an effective remedy through the restoration of industry, increased production with extension of home and foreign markets, and a reduction in taxation. The committee relies on increased taxation and the payment of a dole until some expert or other discovers jobs for the most clamant pleaders for work. Again, as is the way in polities, the blind attempts to lead the blind. "

OVERSEAS FARMERS

BY a happy conjunction of events, attention just now is focused on agrarian topics. Within the past few days four delegations of overseas farmers have arrived at Auckland. One party is from South Africa, a second from Canada, a third from the British Isles, and a fourth, consisting of dairy farmers, from Australia. The first three of these parties were to have joined in the tour of New Zealand arranged as part of the gathering of Empire farmers, hut by an unusual stroke of misfortune the Canadian party is at present held up in quarantine. At first it seemed likely 'that they would miss most of the trip, hut the Health Department now gives the welcome assurance that they will if possible he released from detention in time to participate m the major part of the tour. . . During the visit of the Empire farmers, views and opinions upon subjects dear to the heart of every farmer will he exchanged between New Zealand farmers and their guests. It may he well imagined that there will he some heart to heart discussions, for no one is more earnest about liis problems than the farmer. But from these conversations much good will ensue. Difficulties of production, marketing, cropping, and all tlie other aspects of rural labours will be discussed. The visitors will see some of the finest farms in New Zealand, blending these technical inspections with a happily-arranged programme of sightseeing in both Islands. South African and Canadian farmers will see differences in the treatment of land only broken in to production within the past fifty or sixty years, and British farmers will see modifications of the methods brought to New Zealand by sturdy pioneerino - yeomen grounded in the rustic arts of the shires and counties. = Though not officially associated with the Empire Farmers’ party, the Australian dairy farmers are here for the same purpose, to see New Zealand methods in operation, and to exchange view’s on common problems. In the circumstances it is appropriate that they should he here at the same time as the other delegations, and that on at least one important part of their trip, the visit to the Ruakura farm in the Waikato, their programmes should be conjoined. The third circumstance which gives farming and farming operations a prominence in the events of the day is the opening tomorrow of the Auckland A. and P. Show. Here will be seen the produce of a belt of productive country, and urban and rural interests will overlap. It is perhaps unfortunate that the visiting farmers could not have stayed to attend this fixture, but they will at least see some of the flocks and herds which make its success on a large scale possible.