UNEMPLOYMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 143, 18 June 1926, Page 12

UNEMPLOYMENT.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I believe a few men could make & living if they would launch out for themselves. Watercress can readily be found and sold. One of the wealthy men at Cardiff started with a few sweets on a tray. Someone asked him a few years ago how he would start now if he lost all, or had to begin again. His reply was: "I do not know of anything better than the way I started yefirs ago?" When I arrived here a fellow passenger told mc that he did not know what to do. and I suggested to him to put an ad. in the paper, "wanted work for one day per week at gardening." He was afraid ho knew nothing about rardening, but I told him not to trouble but to try. He got several days' work in reply to the advertisement, and he made a living at it for months, until he got work suited to his experience. Some men make five pounds per week selling "Stars" in the evening. If the unemployed would put the'r shoulders to the wheel and do anything till suitable openings offered, the position would be alleviated.—l am, etc.. SELF HELP. (To the Editor.)

Sir, —It is-, said that on many occasions when a wild ostrich is liot-lv pursued it attempts to conceal itself by burying its head in the sand. This action is apparently not peculiar to that winsred creature. We read of the Hon. Mr. McLeod ridiculing tbe great surplus of unemnloyed, now in the country, and, Ike Nelson, sfcatine "I do not see it," and Nelson's attitude at that time led to success, but no one with a grain of reason is b'kelv to predict that for the Honourable Mr. McLeod. We have. again, sir James Coates, who ursres all s-'nele men "to hike- to the country." This is my experience and several others who have "hiked" to the country. Six months in country; work performed at the most about one month; wages earned twelve pounds sterling; living under those conditions is a bare existence, -with not a penny to spend on boots and clotlrnsr. Three positions I applied for were filled with, not New Zealanders, but immigrants, one of whom was discharged as being totally incapable (wonderful where his references were obtained). It has been a noticeable pol : cy that since the Government benches have been occunied by tbe Tories, immigration has been speeded up. Why? Tlie reason os obvious! WAIKATO. (To the Editor.) Sir.—The attitude d ; sr>laved by the Premier towards recent unemployed denotations was hardly to be expected from a politician. And what a lamentaide ignorance of the conditions under which open-air workers who arc paid by the hour have to exist during the winter months! It is a common occurrence for them to go home on pay day with two or three days' wages, out of which they may have to. pay a pound for rent, and are also under extra expense for clothins', fuel, medicines, etc. On general principles, if a work is worth doing, it is worth doing well, and if t_ny country can afford to pay for work well done that country should be New Zealand. If anything, this class of worker should be paid an increased rate during the winter n\onths. By working an hour extra on fine days it would be difficult for them to maintain a' decent average earning. Offering them under standard wapes is like putting in the boot when a man is down.—l am, etc., N.Z.