H.—35A,

Session I. 19 32. NEW ZEALAND.

UNEMPLOYMENT. STATEMENT BY THE RIGHT HON. J. G. COATES, MINISTER IN CHARGE OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

Laid on the Table of the House of Representatives, 23rd March, 1932, by Leave.

STATEMENT.

For the information of honourable members and the country, I desire to review the position in respect to unemployment and to outline some further courses of action calculated to provide an opportunity for those out of employment. In so doing I recognize two basic considerations. It is necessary to keep in mind the effect of burdens of taxation, for it is obvious that the more the public is taxed the greater will be the decrease in spending ability, which brings its own reactions in industry. My endeavour, therefore, is to keep a reasonable and equitable balance, and thereby avoid adding to the troubles with which we are dealing. On the other hand, it is my opinion that we must not merely say reasonable relief should be granted to those in distress, but must take every step within our power to ensure that no citizen who is prepared to work shall go short of the minimum necessities to keep together body and soul of himself and his dependants. In reviewing the past few months we are able to see some cause for satisfaction. The rate of increase in the number of registered unemployed has at least been arrested in the meantime. The total stood at 51,408 on the sth October ; it has been reduced by seven thousand, and has now been fairly constant at about forty-five thousand for several weeks. The figure on the 14th March was 44,399. At this period a year ago the steeply rising figures of unemployment showed no slackening whatever ; the registrations, in fact, increased from six thousand in October to thirty-one thousand in March last year. The total placements of men in subsidized employment on farms is seventeen thousand. This represents some real progress in moving men over the fence." Every care has been taken to see that these men have not displaced regular employees. The number actually on farms as additional labour to-day is seven thousand :in October last the figure was two thousand. This effort to assist at once the unemployed and the man on the land appeals to me as thoroughly sound, for it is upon the farmer and the unemployed that the burden of this depression has fallen most heavily. Our intention, therefore, is to extend to the utmost the means of placing men on existing farms ; to some further steps proposed in this direction I shall presently refer. About one thousand single men have been moved from congested city areas into camps for highway construction. These camps were in the nature of an experiment on the part of the Main Highways Board and the Unemployment Board ; and they are now to be judged satisfactory. The principle will be further extended, but with the difference that the purpose will not be confined to roadwork. A start has already been made in establishing camps for married men to enable them to engage in more useful work than they could be offered in the cities. The marked revival in gold-prospecting is due in part to the assistance given by the Unemployment Board, co-operating with the Mines Department. With gold over £6 per ounce as compared with £3 17s. lOd. a year ago, many workings, which were not worth while have now become so. Most of the men out prospecting and fossicking are now able to earn a living without assistance, and some have done quite well. Some hundreds of these men in necessitous circumstances have been given a start from unemployment funds. The Unemployment Fund will be recouped to the extent of 10 per cent, of all gold won.