EMPLOYMENT SCHEMES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 915, 7 March 1930, Page 8

EMPLOYMENT SCHEMES

DISCUSSION BY MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE SINKING FUND POOL PUN Press Association INVERCARGILL, Thursday. Tho question ..f provision for alfe. % sating upemp..'. was one of th* matters den., with at the confects** o„ L thi Mimn.il al A.-r. . lauon today. Lonsiderable discussion took pl and il was finally .. voided to subiS a scheme to the Government. The Rev. J K. Archer. -M tyor nChristchurch, said tna; imemploymei* in New Zca-aml was o v « folly but a crime. Air C:....c* IT had suggested a com cnee, but no one was making a m. ve to cany >9] tho suggestion. Muni, wilities TCer . bearing the burden , ..•Partin* fi* unemployed, and if iher .. s , money to -to that, there \\ as ; lor.cy to empior men. Mr. G. A Troup, M yor of Welling, ton, said that a scheme had been devised two years ago and had been sent to the Government as an u„_ employed insurance scheme. This scheme had provided for i fund which would have met any needs arising out of unemployment. The Rt. LLcq. J G. Coates had refuse*.! the scheme because it would cost the Government a quarter of the total capital, but the speaker claimed more than that was being spent to relieve unemployment I Mr. Troup attacked the scheme for | unemployment insurance recently pubI lished. He held that the susrgesSS * ; wrong in principle, and the only wav i to meet tho difficulty was to set up a ■ fund as had been suggested two years ago, and apply it to provide work and ; not as a dole. lie moved that th* ( conference bodies object to the proposal put forward by tho special committee set up by the Government on tho following grounds:—U ) Work and not a dole should be provided; (2) that the principle of taxing municipalities in the manner provided was unfair and unsound; (3) that New Zealand was not able to stand an additional taxation of £1,000,000 annually. He also moved that the conferenoo should recommend the Government to adopt the unemployment insurance scheme previously prepared by the association. Mr. T. Bloodworth (Auckland) objected to the motion on grounds that it might provide the Government, with an excuse for holding up consideration of the report brought down by its own committee. He did not think any scheme of land settlement would meet the difficulty, for lie said during the last three years the population ol New Zealand had increased by 3 per cent, while horse-power for manufacturing machinery had increased to 200,000. INSURANCE NOT A “DOLE” Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Christchurch) said he objected to the word “dole.** If a man insured his house and it was burnt down, insurance was not regarded as a “dole.” If a man insured himself against unemployment, he had a right to insurance if he became genuinely unemployed. He suggested that the conference’s scheme should be sent to the Government for consideration along with the Unemployment Committee’s scheme. Mr. M. F. Luckie (Wellington) held that the scheme outlined by Mr. Troup was vastly superior to the one brought down by the Government’s committee. He agreed with Mr. Sullivan that there was nothing derogatory in the term “dole.” but it was open to abuse and they should try to do without it The beauty of the conference’s scheme was that money provided by the municipalities wouid be spent in municipalities on useful work. Mr. Bloodworth said unemployment was not evil. If it was some of the men they held in the highest esteem had been suffering from it for years. The problem they had to face was tli&t of providing a market for the goods produced by the employed. Mr. D. W. Coleman (Gisborne) moved, as an amendment, that the conference’s scheme should be forwarded to the Government for consideration along with the Unemployment Committee’s scheme. The amendment was lost and the motion was carried. POOLING SINKING FUNDS Mr. G. A. Troup, Mayor of Wellington, moved that it be an instruction from the conference to the executive that it should prepare a report for submission to the next conference on the question of local bodies pooling their sinking funds under the control of a board of sinking fund commissioners with a view to lending such sinking funds to local bodies. Mr. Troup said that the sinking funds at the present time amounted to £4,000,000 and in a few years’ tim* the total would be much greater if they pooled their funds. If the sinking funds were controlled by one body instead of 50 they would be able to get very much higher rates of interest The borrowing position of the local bodies was in a very sound way and some cf the largest municipalities could get terms as good as, or better, than, the Government England was considering a similar scheme. The motion was carried. It was decided to hold the next conference at Rotorua. The election of officers resulted:—President, Mr. T. Jackson (Rotorua); vice-presidents, the Mayors of Auckland, Welling.ton, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill; executive, the Mayors of Fending, Masterton, Wanganui and Hamilton, Mr. M. F. Duckie ( Wellington), Mr. M. E. Lyons the chairman of the Ellerslie Towfi Board, the chairman of the Otabuliu Town Board, and the chairman of tho Auckland Transport Board.