UNEMPLOYMENT.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14982, 1 June 1914, Page 2

UNEMPLOYMENT.

DISTHESS IN AUCKLAND. AN ALL-ROUND SLUMP. (SPECIAL It "THE PRES3.") , AUCKLAND, May 30. Winter time usually brings a slackening off in tho avenues of employment but apparently the next few months will v, itness a period of stress never before experienced in Auckland. Already both in _killed"and unskilled trades there is a large and. growing army of unemployed, and when a reporter did a round of the union offices at the Trades Hall this morning he was furnished in every instance with the same story of hard times and little-doing. *

"It is not an ordinary winter slackness but a general all-round slump, 11 said Mr Arthur Rosser, in speaking of the position generally. He went on to say that there were hundreds of oat of emploj'ineiit in Aucklanu at the present time, and it was likely that as winter deepened the situation would become more acute. It is the usual thing for a good deal of unskilled labour to drift into the city, at this time of the year, b,ut independent of this the position is exceedingly serious. In fact, it is in the skilled tiades that the truuo._is most noticeable The close of £h3 exhibition threw a good many people out of employment. Then there ha_ been a considerable influx from the Old Country, and people arriving from Home, after a hard winter, find it an additional hardship to reach Auckland during the winter months, when practically every trade reports a period of unprecedented slackness.

Tho strike, of course, has had its aftermath, but union secretaries ~re of the opinion that only on the waterfront is there any direct evidence of this. Recently. Mr Rosser, at' the request of the Bishop of Auckland, prepared a statement indica'tins** what th«* position wa* amongst waterside workers. Mr Rosser compiled a list showing that those denioa entrance to the rew Waterside Workers' Union included fifty men who had worked for years on tin waterfront, some of them having a record of forty years to their credit; These men. with dependents totalling over 250 had been shut on* from their Icfi^ii"** 0 means of liveli-

~-d. The Bishop, it is understood, is interceding: on behalr of these men and their families. '

Referring to trades which are actually busy right through tho year, Mr Rosser pointed out that in building operations there is now a noticeable lull, with the result that carpenters, bricklayers, painters, plumbers, and others are comElainiug of quiet times. lii the coachuilding trade work was very slack. The big firms were reducing the hands and tariff reform was necessary if the advent of the motor-car was not to have its effect on those engaged in this industry. Even in the printing trade business showed.a falling off. and bookbinders and letterpress machinists were making for Australia.

Mr Tom Bloodworth. secretary of the Carpenters' Union, said that although the union non-employment book only indicated 40 men out of work, there were in reality a great many more. It had been suggested, he added, that the new award was possibly the reason for less employment, but the real cause undoubtedly was that most of the big buildings in course of erection in the city had now been completed. A good many- people had come to Auckland attracted by work offering in connexion with the Exhibition, and had helped t<> swell tho present list of unemployed. The position was certainly worse than, usual.

"I have an average of 50 to 60 applicants for work coming here per day, said -Mr Tom Long, secretary of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees' Union. In addition, he added, there were members of the union out of work who made their enquiries by telephone.