In his Budget Statement of 1936 the Minister of Finance, Mr Walter Nash, highlighted the Labour Government's plan towards long term employment; "progress towards full employment must be made through the extension of our secondary industries and development of new industries and services" (NZPD, 1936: 265). Nash (943) claimed that expansionary economic policy pursued by the Labour Government after taking office, brought a degree of economic activity accompanied by record production and employment unparalleled from previous recoveries.
According to the Minister of Finance, "the aim of the government was and is to organise an internal economy that will distribute to every person able and
willing to work the opportunity to do so" (NZPD, 1938: 606). The Minister of Labour was reported in the
New Zealand Herald
as saying: "There is plenty of work to be done throughout the country" (May 5, 1936). This view was generally shared by both the Cabinet and Labour caucus (Brown, 1946).The Government had determined that the aim of any unemployment policy was not simply to relieve unemployment, but to create and stimulate full-time productive employment (A]HR, 1936). In May 1936, Mr Robert Semple, Minister of Works, presented to Parliament a three-year programme totalling £17.5 million for public works (NZPD, 1936) . The programme was supported by the powerful Taranaki member of the Legislative Council, Mr R. Masters, who said that, the Coalition Government, "had done little to place the unemployed back in productive work"
(New Zealand Herald,
May 1 , 1936).Labour's programme of public works was not dominated by pick-and-shovel work as had been the case since the 1 840s. A great deal of heavy equipment had been imported directly by the government for use on public works (Taylor, 1986). The reduction of 'pick and shovel' work further undermined the principle of 'less eligibility' so central to relief works of previous governments. Following the implementation of the public works programme, by the winter of 1936 most of the much despised public works' camps had been provided with recreation rooms, libraries, and in some cases cinemas, while living accommodation was greatly improved (Press, March 4, 1936). By contrast, under the Coalition only a few of the better-run relief work camps had been provided with certain amenities. Many of the occupants of these camps had been existing on relief rates. Under the Labour Government they were placed on standard wages (Burdon, 1965). The Prime Minister, Savage remarked at the close of the first session of Parliament on November 26, 1936 that, "less than a year after taking office the Government had . . . transformed the conditions under which public works were to be carried" (NZPD, 1936: 1 67). The improvement of working conditions and rates of pay was another way in which the principle of 'less eligibility' was undermined by the first Labour Government.
Although the Labour Government's responses to unemployment were based on the principle of universality, women's position lagged behind that of men, and gender discrimination continued. As Eve Ebbett remarks, for many New
Zealand women the Depression did not end with the election of the Labour Government in 1935 and the development of the social security programme in 1938. "The hard times lasted until the war began and jobs for obvious reasons became freely available" (Ebbett, 197 1 : 5). As men left for war, women were recruited into jobs for which they would not have been considered in peace time.
To assist unemployed workers to find paid employment in the private sector, the State Placement Service, a branch of the Employment Division of the Department of Labour, was established under the Employment Promotion Act 1936 (AjHR, 1946 H-1 1A). Table 20 below shows the number of male placements by the Service between 1936 and 1942.
TABLE 20: MALE PLACEMENTS IN PRIVATE SECTOR BElWEEN
Nature of 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 Total
Placement May- Jan- Jan- Jan- Jan- Jan- Jan-
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
Permanent 9,530 17,650 1 2,885 1 1 ,370 10,827 1 2.303 3,386 77,95 1
Temporary 5.384 12,05 1 9,416 8,569 9,224 9,207 2,056 55,907
Casual 4,329 17,092 17,354 12,879 1 1,262 10,293 1,561 74,770
Totals 19,243 46,793 39,655 32,818 31,313 31 ,803 7,003 208,628
Source: AfHR, 1943, H-1 1: 5
One of the most significant changes brought in by the Labour Government's response to unemployment was the shift in emphasis from pr�viding only temporary employment to proViding permanent employment by creating additional jobs. The Government began to transfer unemployed men from Scheme No. 5 to full-time public works jobs at standard 'wage rates (A]HR, 1936 H-35: 5). Scheme No. 5 had accounted for more than 80 percent of relief work provided to the unemployed under the Coalition Government (Robertson, 1978). At the beginning of December, 1935, the men employed on 'public works numbered 13,696, of whom 8,289 were employed under relief conditions. On December 1 1 , 1936, public works employees had risen to 19,146, all of whom were on standard rates of pay (A]HR, 1937-38 H-UA). By 1939 there were more than 22,000 men engaged on public works (A]HR, 1946 H-1 1A). The public works programme included the completion of
railways, highways and roads, elimination of dangerous railway crossings, aerodrome construction, and public buildings (Thorn, 1937).
However since many of these projects were in country districts it was not seen as desirable to require married men to leave their families. Work under Scheme No. 5 continued to be rationed until 1937. In 1936 the Minister of Labour appealed to Local Authorities to create productive work for the unemployed under Scheme No. 5
(New Zeala nd Herald,
May 5 , 1936). According to the Department of Labour Annual Report of 1 938, unemployment was not seen as a temporary phenomenon:The problem of unemployment today, and for future generations, may not be how to provide subsistence for persons out of employment, but how surplus labour may be absorbed in socially useful ways at rates of pay consistent with those enjoyed by the rest of the community (AJHR, 1938 H- l lA: 1 1).
Under the Labour Government the state took the main responsibility for finding work for the unemployed. This represented a Significant departure from the hitherto 'traditional' way of state responses to unemployment which had involved only the provision of short term employment.
The undermining of the principle of 'less eligibility' by putting relief workers on standard wage rates was condemned by the National Party Member of Parliament for Gisborne who complained that:
work on public works has become more attractive than work in primary industries. relief jobs are altogether too attractive to-day. The government policy is absolutely ruining the moral fibre of our nation (NZPD, 1939: 6, 7).
Farmers joined the National Party's criticism of the Labour Government's programme of public works. The concern of farmers was that the Government by offering better pay and conditions on public works meant that workers had little incentive to seek private sector employment which offered wages below those on offer under public works.4 The undermining of the principle of 'less eligibility' in relief works meant that farmers had to offer better wages to attract workers.
In September, 1937, the Government launched Scheme No. 16 in the building trades to train carpenters and bricklayers. See Table 21 for the number of 4 The farmers' position over the Labour Government's programme of unemployment relief is
trainees on the 4th April, 1942. Of the 47 contracts in operation in 1942, 45 were in their third year and two in the second year CAJHR, 1942 H-UA).
TABLE 2 1 : SCHEME SUBSIDISED APPRENTICES IN BUILDING TRADE
Trainees Total
(a) Contracts in operation 46
1
-47
(b) Contracts suspended
203
14
7
24
(c) Contracts terminated
183
81
4268
(d) Contracts completed
166
27
12
205
(e) Contracts cancelled
9
5
1
1 5
Totals 607