THE LABOUR MARKET.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 94, 22 April 1902, Page 2

THE LABOUR MARKET.

A PUBLIC MEETING. (By Telegraph.—Own * Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Monday,

About 60 persons were present on Saturday afternoon at a meetingoorir the unemployed, .held in the Basin Reserve, though it was palpable that of this number not more than a dozen could be honestly classed in the category of unemployed. It was slated in the discussion which preceded the actual proceedings that the workers in the city were being •injured by a large influx of men from the country districts, owing to the stoppage of public works, the completion of the harvest, and other causes, but this is a regular recurring circumstance every year. One of the conveners, Mr Westfield, asserted that upwards of fifty men had applied for two jobs at pick . and shovel work at the Terrace school. Mr McLaren, a member of the Wellington City Council, who was a candidate ' in the labour interest for a seat in Parliament for Wellington at the last general elections, was elected1 chairman, and delivered a speech, In which he referred to the circumstances of last year, when men were employed at 3/ a day in the Kel-. bume Park. He also referred to the recent action in Dunedin in regard to certain men who were out of work. Hi> alleged that the influx of unemployed men from the country caused a serious displacement of the city workers. Mr Westfield moved that a deputation of seven, including htirtseif and Mr Jones (conveners), form a deputation to wait on the Minister for Public Works, and urge him to take, action in the direction of finding immediate work for the unemployed. In the course of his remarks he said that many men who had gone fiom the city and accepted work JU the country were obliged to labour for their bare food. He was strongly opposed to sending men into the country to compete with the rural labourers, who had no system of organisation, and he said it was only the conductors of registry offices wlio by means of the,fees they extracted benefited by sending men into the country. The motion was carried by 13 votes. The TJev. Mr Thomson, of the Scotch Church, said he had found a solution of the problems of labour and capital, in the nationalisation of city lands, the abolition of the unearned increment, and the appointment of a commission to regulate rents. • Several other speakers addressed the meeting in a vague and discussive style. So far as I can ascertain, the unemployed "difficulty in Wellington is no worse now than during the corresponding season of previous years. Almost invariably at this period the close of the wool season and harvesting drives many men into the cities. The conditions prevailing on the wharf generally give a fair indication of the state of the labour market. The last three occasions on which there was not a sufficiency of labour available for work on the wharves wer March 3rd, 7th and 25th, but", since the latter date there have always been the number of men wanted." Two weeks ago, it appears, the Harbour Board was employing from 200 to 220 hands a day, but this week the number has averag-ed 150. Next week, if a big steamer is in, the number will go up to between 180 and 200. So far as the wharves are concerned, this year has been better ,than for some time in providing work, and the present prospects are that the coming months will support the improvement. In the course of a brief interview with Mr Mackay, of the Labour Department, I learned that in many cases where offers of employment in the country were made to idle men in the city they, upon one excuse or another, .shirked the work, preferring to loiter about the streets or wharves on the off chance of occasional jobs which serve to keep the wolf from the door. He assured me that.there was plenty of work available at Stratford and in the Tarar.aki district for any men who possessed the pluck to tackle it, the Labour Department paying the passages and putting the men in their livelihoodWELLINGTON, this day. The unemployed deputation introduced to the Hon. Hall-Jones by Mr Fisher, M.H'.B., resulted in a fiasco. The two principal speakers admitted they had thrown up well paid work in the South in order to better themselves in Wellington. Another declared he could get employment any day, only he was agitating for the good of his fellowmen. Most of the deputation wei'e young unmarried men. The Minister for Works, referring to their disinclination to go to work in country districts, said unemployed men must go where there is work. Work would not be brought to them. Too many men preferred to hang about Wellington, instead of going to the, country and put up with hard graft like the early settlers did. The Department would continue to give first consideration to married men, next to young single men with dependents, and last to young single men without dependents. He invited the only two deserving men to call at the Labour Btireau office. .