OUT OF WORK.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 192, 18 September 1914, Page 9

OUT OF WORK.

THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.

POSITION IN CHBISTCHUBCH. Hundreds of men are out of employment in Christchurch at the present time. That statement has been heard so often in'the last couple of weeks that there seems to be a disposition amongst some people to take the unemployment question as rather a matter of course. Indeed, some people frankly question whether the problem is nearly as acute as has been alleged by the speakers at the metings of the "out of works" which have been held in the city of late. The questioners argue that at this time of the year there is always a fair amount of unemployment, and that many of the men whose names appear oi: the register of unemployed which is kept at the Trades Hall are casual labourers, who are out of work, between jobs. The inference intended to be drawn from this is that the war is not responsible for a serious problem of unemployment in Christchurch. With a view to ascertaining the real position, a SUN representative made searching enquiries. The result goes to show that the position is worse than the optimists imagine. Unfortunately there is no thoroughly complete and reliable list of unemployed in existence. Only three lists need be taken into aceoun Of these, the'''most comprehensive i., that kept at the Trades Hall. This shows that 3.19 men are out of work. Then there is the City Council's list, containing between .120 and 130 names. The smallest list is that of the Department of Labour. These are all independent lists, and the number of men whose names appear on more than one is unknown. Further, there is no means of checking the lists so as to ascertain how many of the men registered therein have obtained work since the "entering of .their names. However, it is obvious that literally hundreds of men are out of work. i BUILDING TRADES INACTIVE. : investigation showed that'the. v<oiut which has been made that most of the unemployed are casual labourers, who are frequently out of work for short periods, is beside the issue. It ,is extremely abnormal for all those men to be out of work at the same time. Of the men on the Trades Hall list, which is in charge of Mr E. J. Howard, 241 are labourers —most of them builders' labourers —and the other 7S are of almost all trades. By far the great majority of the 319 men" work at the building and allied trades, and their unemployment is due entirely to builders abandoning contracts after the war broke out. In August and September of last vear only nine men put their names to Mr Howard's register of unemployed. Clearly, then, the war is responsible for a serious unemployment problem in Christchurch.' A POWERLESS COMMITTEE. The Government has set up an Unemployment Committee in Christchurch, but has given it neither funds nor power. The committee is, perforce, unable to institute any comprehensive scheme of relief. It is doing as much as it can, in the circumstances, but that amount is very small in comparison with what needs to be done. A few men have been set at digging various small sections of laud, and planting them with potatoes. It is only a drop in the bucket. The Government has decided to give a subsidy of £750 showed the relief of unemployment in the district. Before that subsidy can be obtained, the local bodies concerned have to amalgamate in their dealing with the question, agree upon the work that is to be done, and then obtain the approval of the Minister of Public Works. That procedure alone means delay. And there is also the probability that the local bodies will not agree upon the work that is to be done. At the present time, therefore, the Government subsidy is practically useless. ASHLEY GORGE WORKS.

The Public Works Department, however, has done something towards the relief of the unemployed in Christ - church. Since "Wednesday it has been sending fifty men, in parties, to" roadworks at Ashley Gorge, where a road is being made to open up a block of land for closer settlement. The work is expected to take some considerable time. In connection with this, however, there lias been a little trouble. 'A few of the meu who went from Christchurch returned and complained that they had been unable to obtain provisions at Ashley Gorge. It seems that a butcher who had been supplying the camp had lost through some men leaving without paying him, and he was cutting off supplies. The department, however, has

now made arrangements f of the supply of provisions to be resumed. CITY BELIEF WORKS. As far as Christehureh is immediately concerned, the most important relief work at present in hand is that being carried out by the Works Committee of ! the City Council, the committee having I been granted £SOO by the council for this purpose. The committee is putting 25 men at a time on road works-—prin-i cipally on the formation of a track to ! Victoria Park. Each party is given five daj r 3' work, and then another 25 men are put on. The wage is 9/- per day. In addition, the formation of Eiver Road, Beekenham, is to be undertaken shortly, and this will occupy ten or twelve men. Various other small road works will be taken up. Men who have dependents are being allotted this work, and preference is given to the most necessitous cases. It must be remembered, however, that all road works cannot be used for the relief'of unemployed; the City Council's large permanent staff lias to be kept employed. And the City Council, as it is using ratepayers ' money, is giving work only to men who live within the city boundaries. On Monday, eight or ten men will be put at digging plots and planting potatoes. "V The works which have been mentioned give employment to about 85 or 90 men. There is a probability of the Christehureh Drainage Board putting in hand shortly Avork which will occupy 20 or 25 men. Even then, at i least, two-thirds of the men who have j signed the unemployment lists will be without work. _ It was hoped that the ■ i'lea ; ring of ltfany miles of water-races ! i the Malvern County would assist in \ .he relief work. But that work has ; been let by contract, and it was found that there,were sufficient unemployed j men in the county itself to do the work. : At present there is but little farm work to be done, for the farmers are.: "between the seasons." Next month, ' shearing operations will commence, aanl ; there will be plenty of work on the farms. But few of the men who are out of work in Christehureh have any ; knowledge of shearing! There is, however, one little gle„am o hope. The Labour Department repor* that the demand for general workers in showing some improvement.