The Waikato Times THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1937 THE SECOND STAGE.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20282, 26 August 1937, Page 8

The Waikato Times THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1937 THE SECOND STAGE.

The decision of the Government to appoint a special committee to “make recommendations that will enable the Government to reach its objectives,” in the matter of full employment for all able-bodied men, will recall the fact that the method of appointing committees, or commissions, for such purposes was strongly condemned by the Labour members when they were in Opposition. They alleged that the Government of the day adopted this method in order to find a policy, and, looked at from any angle, there does not appear to much difference in the methods of the two parties, for this committee is to submit a twelve-months’ plan for the consideration of the Ministry. Sixteen months ago the present Government introduced an Employment Promotion Bill and Mr Savage explained that they had had to take over an obsolete machine for dealing with unemployment.” I say very definitely,” the Prime Minister remarked,” that we inherited a rickety old machine—a machine which we did not praise when it was being constructed in the first place.” The first duty, then, was to reconstruct the machine or provide a new one, and no one criticised the Prime Minister when he said that this could not be done over a week-end.

The introductory stage has passed and to-day the task of devising a plan to provide work for able-bodied men has been entrusted to a committee. The position must be extremely disappointing to the Government, for it entered office with the hope that it could, within a reasonable time, solve this problem. The Minister of Finance, in April, 1936, said: “I said that within six months—we are getting close to that now—l thought we would be able to give some form of employment for nearly half the unemployed, and that within twelve months or soon after we ought to be able to say that those who were unemployed at the beginning of the year were no longer unemployed if they were willing to work. That was a guarded statement, carefully made and thoughtfully worked out.” In three or four months the Government will have completed two years of office, and instead of the men who were unemployed at the commencement of 1936 being all in employment, the Government has had to set up a special committee in order to devise a plan for providing work on a large scale. It must be admitted that, in this respect as also with regard to farm labour, the anticipations of the Government have not been fulfilled.

It would be more satisfactory if the committee were empowered to investigate the reasons why there are still so many men idle. Members of the Ministry have claimed that prosperity has returned to the Dominion and have asserted that this is largely the result of the Government policy. The advance in wages is said by Mr Sullivan to have been about double the increase in the cost of living, and he contends that the secondary industries are much more active. Why, then, the lag in the absorption of labour? It probably will not be admitted by any Labour member, but it remains a fact, that the employment of large numbers of men on public works is no solution. It is a palliative, for once the works have been completed either other undertakings must be authorised or the ranks of the unemployed will be augmented. It may occur to the authorities that possibly their policy of increasing taxation is one very important contributing factor. Firms that have to pay over 50 per cent, of their net profit in taxation simply have not the reserves to expand the business. The duty of the Government is to create conditions in which industry can develop, and taxation is a barrier to progress. Yet it is only by the development of resources, both primary and secondary, that avenues for the permanent employment of men can be made, and that is the angle from which the problem should be approached.