UNEMPLOYMENT.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17393, 2 March 1922, Page 4

UNEMPLOYMENT.

ENGINEERS OUT OF WORK. deputation to minister or LABOUR. i Matters connected with the slackness and consequent unemployment in the engineering trade were yesterday brought before the Minister of Labour (Hon. 6. J. Anderson) by a. deputation, consisting of Mr S, W. King, secretary of the Christchurch branches of the" Amalgamated Engineering Union/ whose remarks were supported by several members of the Union who came to the Dominion on representations that there was plenty of work offering for mechanics, and that employers were falling over one another to get men. Mr J. McCombs, M.l-, introduced the deputation. Mr King said that it had been made known in Great Britain that New Zealand'wanted 22,000 artisans. The country needed men who had some capital with which to establish themselves .on the land, or who Tere able and willing to work on the land. To invite men of the skilled artisan typej such as were coming out now, was simply to increase unemployment. The engineer, ing works of Christchurch could all be put together in one English plant, and then a visitor would need a guide to find them,. Work in all the l«aT works was very slack. Andersons, _ Ltd., had discharged 60 men out of 150, and the remainder were working about halftime. Booth, Macdonald, and Co., ijtd., worked its hands only three weeks out of four. The rest were in the same position, and some of the smaller firms were on the verge of closing down. In November last it was notified that no vacancies for fitters and turners existed at the Addington Railway "Workshops, but since then fitters and turners had been coming in by every boat, and had been sent to Addington. Many of them were singlo men, and the men who could not get work anywhere were mostly married. "I say that it is criminal to bring out men of this type whilo 200 skilled men are'out of work, or are doing harvesting or freezing said Mr King. ''The members of our union consider that these men are being induced to come out by false pretences." He added that some of the men wanted to go Home again, as they would be entitled to Governinent awiptar.ee while out, of work. Messrs J. H. Hall, F. G. Harding, and J. H. Smith, members of the Union out of work', gave their individual experiences. Mr Hall said he was nominated by his brothei'-in-laVj and arrived early last October, but had been unable to get constant work., jje was told at the High Commissioner's Jffice that there w.is plenty of work tor engineers in the Dominion. Mr Harding, electrical engineer, said that he left Government employment in England to come out. He arrived on August 21st, having been nominated by a friend. An official in the High Commissioner's office told hira that he would have no difficulty whatever iu getting employment; hia only difficulty would be in finding a house to live in. For nine weeks after his arrival he did nothing, except pass an examination, which he wa,s told was necessary. Then he obtained temporary work for two months as a shift engineer at the Lake Coleridje powerhouse, and afterwards a month s temporary work at Lyttelton. Now he wns out of employment. "My complaint is that wo should not be told that there is work when there is none," he continued. "Woyld _any sensible, thinking man come 15,000 miles to this?" He had a wife and three children. His experience had been varied; he had been engineer in charge of a naval floating dock, a refrigerating engineer with the Orient Steamship Co., Ltd., and an electrical engineer with an English railway. In reply to the Minister, Mr Harding stated that the name of the London official whom he interviewed was Camecon. ' Mr Smith said lie had received a letter from the High Commissioner's office to the effect that engineers were so scarce in New Zealand that employers were fighting for them. He had arrived last May, and had been unable to get work for any length of time. He had a wife and one child to support. The Minister: I should like to see the letter.

Mr King: I can supply you with a copy of that, ana others. The Minister, in.reply, gaid that on Tuesday the Cabinet went into the question of unemployment, md a committer of the Cabinet had been set u» to prepare for dealing with the unemployed as far as it could be done Here he wanted to say thit they were' s*nino to look to the local bodies, espSf the four large cities, for a&sistaiir/ The Government would <lo its best W they looked to the cities to do t £ part. If that were done he thoX

it would meet the position fairly possibly, very successfully, during the coming winter. The matters affecting immigration referred to by the deputation, he would bring under the notice of the Hon. W. Mosworthy. Whoever stated that people in the Dominion were falling over one another for engineers ought not to have made it : the officers at the High Commissioner s office had instructions that the class of immigrant wanted was men who wer® prepared to go on tho lfind. The Minister expressed the opinion that in some cases the nominators of immigrants were to blame in failing to provide work for the immigrants when they arrived. „ . , , . Mr E. J. Howard, M.P., m thanking the Minister for receiving this and other deputations, said it Beemed to him a tragedy that men like those in the room could not be found work—they were the very class of men the country needed. The Minister remarked that Mr Howard had made a very strong political speech. "I want to say this, Mr Anderson added, "that every one of these men will be absorbed in this country—they are the proper type ot men.—and yovi, Mr Howard, know that as well as I do."