UNEMPLOYMENT DEMANDS

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 142, 18 July 1929, Page 5

UNEMPLOYMENT DEMANDS

From Our Special Parliamentary Reporter,

SIR JOSEPH WARD'S EXPLANATION. OVER 2000 MEN FOR SOUTH ISLAND PtAILWAY,

WELLINGTON, Tbis day. A declaration that the Government is doing evei-ything it possibly can to cope with unemployment, and that it was hoped to do mueh more when the financial statement had heen presented, was made by the Prime Minister m the House yesterday. Sir Joseph Ward said that members of tbe House were showing a tendency to speak as if tbe Government had an unlimited purse at its disposal, and as if every local body which was troubled with unemployment had ihe r.ght to dfcinand that they shouJd rece.ve something like £25,000. Mr F. Langstone : Who else can they go to ? Sir Joseph Ward: Tliis country lias not provided tlie Government with the means of employing every body. Members, he continued, ought to speak a little more plainly to tkoss who were urging them to find employment for them. There was an incei • sant ciy from those who were dismissed on the completion of jobs for the Goveniment to find work for them immediately, but the Government could not do tliat. It was absolutely impossitle. It was not fair to say tliat the Government was not doing its best to meet tlie position. It was finding work in all directions. and yet there were members who spoke as if the Government were doing nothing. "As a matter of faet," said the Prime Minister, "w© are doing a very great deal, and we are prepared to do a great deal more. It is not fair for local bodies to ask the Government for pound for pound subsicly at a time when unemployment is rife. It is impossible to give it. In dealing with unemployment we have to take a rational view. We have done tlie best we can to meet the cases. At the present time we have men demanding work as soon as one job is finished and before we have time to tuni round ancl before we know wkether fresh works can be put in Land. We can't do impossibilities. As soon as I get tbe financial statement before the 'House I hope to find employment for a great many more men." Mr Sullivan : Get on with the South Island main trunk. Sir Joseph Ward: Yes, we will do that. There is no question about tliat. I hope to be able to put 2000 or 3000 men on that work.