£1,000,000 A YEAR

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 950, 17 April 1930, Page 8

£1,000,000 A YEAR

ADEQUATE RELIEF FOR UNEMPLOYED WHAT COMMITTEE WANTS “The committee estimated that it would take at least £1,000,000 a year to provide adequately for all the unemployed of New Zealand.” said Mr. J. Roberts, secretary to the Alliance of Labour, at the Trades Hall last evening, in appealing to trade unionists to consider favourably the plan for relief recommended to the Government by the committee of inquiry. Mr. Roberta represented employees on the committee. The investigation of the committee, lie said, proved that unemployment in New Zealand was much more serious than supposed by the average person. LTiemployment had steadily increased in recent years, until toward the end of 1929 there were nearly 15,000 men on Public Works relief operations, and several thousands of men registered by the Labour Department as unemployed. The report submitted to the Government provided for additional taxation to secure two-thirds of the £1,000,000 regarded as necessary each year. The remaining amount would come from the Consolidated Fund. Were work organised, profitable work could be found for all capable workers. The committee realised that a worker was entitled to a sustenance wage, more economical and satisfactory than a charitable aid dole, where employment could not be found for the man. Mr. Roberts could not understand why the Press and a number of public men condemned the report because it recommended this sustenance wage. All society should be interested in unemployment, which was purely a social problem. All males over 18, and all females occupied in industries, were to be taxed to provide the necessary fund, the committeee proposed. Mr. Roberts believed the relief scheme propounded was suitable for New Zealand’s needs. There might be defects* but in the wide outline it was economically sound. If adopted, it would benefit the people of New Zealand as a whole.