UNEMPLOYMENT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 101, 31 May 1930, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT.

"INTERESTED."

/ (To the Editor.) Sir, — At a time like this, when there is a depression in trade, and so many unemployed, and the worker is not wanted in any country, it is a splendid opportunity foy the Government of New Zealand to get to work and build up a new system, to begin a new era, where poverty and unemployment would be entirely unknown. It is almost a certainly that the present system is falling to pieces, for this reason, that we are producing more goods than can be consumed and tbe only remedy suggested, is more and more production. The industrialists of_ England and A.merica are advocating nationalisation of industries, so that more may be produced at less cost and with less labour. The economic law lays it down that where there is no interference from the outside. a nian must work to supply his own needs, and in order to supply his own needs, tliera is always work for him, but civilisation has introduced the machine, and now he can not only supply Tiis own needs, bnt finds himself with a surplus, the disposal of which is the problem for to-day. Then by way of experiment, why should not the Government, instead of spending money on the unemployed, advance money on loan, and lease a few- hundred acres of suitable land in a suitable district, on _ which to build a new colony on strietly sound economio and humanitarian principles? Then, when tha new colony is ready for occupation, migrate some of the Old Country's unemployed to live there and carry on. That is to say, use Britain's idle men in order to find work for New Zealand's idle men. and in the proces'3* use the country's idle capital and idla land. It may sound naradoxial, but I think it will be found to be a sound proposition. It is hecoming more apparent every day that civilisation, m order to dispose of its produce, will have to bring down a scheme to raise the standard of living of the very poor. A perusal of the figures in tha Year Bdok shows that a periqd of bad trade is generally accompanied by * falling off in population, and this in its turn brings ahout an aggrayation of the evil. New Zealand is a fino country, and with the ability we possess to produce, it should he possible to.keep prosperity at a high level, con« stant. and reffiilar. — T am. etc..

Napier, May 29, 1930.