WORK FOR CITY’S UNEMPLOYED

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22796, 23 August 1939, Page 8

WORK FOR CITY’S UNEMPLOYED

REGISTER TOTALS 923 MEN ABSORPTION OF 800 IN , FORTNIGHT MINISTER MEETS THE WORKERS Work for 800 of the 923 men at present unemployed in Christchurch is expected by the Hon. H. T. Armstrong (Minister for Housing) to be provided within the next fortnight. Single men and married men without dependants will be expected to go into camps. The feeling of the unemployed, many of whom are freezing workers, was made plain at a conference with the Minister, at the Trades Hall yesterday afternoon, Mr Armstrong being informed that a series of promises had been given and had not been fulfilled. The Minister indignantly challenged any suggestion of insincerity on the Government’s part. The money was available, he said, and he believed that insufficient men to fill the vacancies would be, later reported. The chairman (Mr J. Rodgers) said seasonal workers had been out of work for long periods and the sustenance allotment was not sufficient to maintain them and their families at the ordinary level of comfort. They wanted work, and at the earliest date, too. The need was urgent. They expected a definite assurance from the Minister. The question of work for seasonal workers was a national and permanent one. Mr J. Knight said the Minister for Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb) had made a statement that seasonal workers would be provided with employment as near as possible to their homes. The workers had held meeting after meeting, but were no further ahead. They had had a series of promises, but the men were still out of work. Whether the men agreed with the suggestion that they should go to the country remained to be seen. Next year, different arrangements would have to be made so that the men would know where they stood. The way they were going now was just a “huge comic opera.” All unemployed men would be considered in the schemes, said the Mayor (Mr R. M. Macfarlane). The building of a track on the Port Hills had been temporarily abandoned, because property owners objected to men going on their properties while lambing was in progress. In future arrangements would have to be made for .the absorption of seasonal workers. Farmers complained that they could not get labour for farms and if they could not get labour for the freezing works, they would soon get the National members to raise the question in Parliament. It was essential for national economy that these workers’should be provided for. Christchurch Problem Mr Armstrong said .that he had been Minister for Labour for a time. A woman’s voice:-i wish you still were. (Hear, hear.) “I lookqfl for a more congenial job, but I have not struck one that is altogether a bed of roses,” said Mr Armstrong. The number of young men unemployed in Christchurch impressed him. Christchurch suffered “more* Rftffi any other part of New Zealand prpih seasonal occupations, and at present 923 were unemployed. Of that total, 200 were physically incapable of doing manual work. 382 were single and 341 were married. If Mr Webb had not been ill, he would have made several visits to Christchurch, and the position would not have been as bad as it was. One of the causes for the delay was that the Minister now had no Employment Fund on which to operate and authority had to be obtained from the Treasury. The Minister had arranged for work for 500 and it was not unreasonable to expect single men to go to the country to work at current rates of wages. A total of 400 men could start work right away. The Railway Department would take 200. 250 would be required to go to the West Coast, 50 would be placed oh work at Godley Lighthouse, and 30 to Onekaka. Improvements to school grounds would absorb 100 men. Some of the works could be begun this week and in a fortnight 800 would be absorbed. Mr Webb proposed to give preference for work m the city or adjacent to the city to married men with dependants, said Mr Armstrong. The others would, of course, have to go into camps or some other part of the country until the freezing works reopened. If the country was to be developed, the men would have to get out of the cities. .

“Is it quite definite that married men will not be shanghaied to camps under any condition," asked a man. ' '■ The Minister; Preference in the city will be given to men with responsibilities. Some married men will have to go to the country. The man; Coates and Forbes forced us into camps. We don’t want that again. The Minister said the Government was not going to send the men into the country unless camps were established. “Lot of Promises" “This meeting is still getting a lot of promises,” said Mr R. Bushell. The unemployed had been given promises since June and the position was serious, with men. with three children trying to exist on £2 10s a week. Now they heard that the jobs were going to be held up until arrangements were made. Mr Armstrong had said arrangements should be made for work for seasonal workers. Surely the Minister and his party should have looked into that years ago. “I am not going to take a lecture from you,” retorted the Minister. “If you have any representations to make, make them. I woke up before you were born.”

Repeating that promises had been made previously and they were not getting the unemployed very far, Mr Bushell said that before the election last year work was plentiful and the freezing workers were told that the jobs would be available at the end of the season'. Those jobs were filled by single men and married men were going to be sent to camps. He moved that the Government be requested to consider the replacement of single men on local body work by married men.

This motion was decisively defeated.

Mr Armstrong said few single men were employed on city jobs. Was it calmly suggested that when the freezing works closed down other men should be sacked to make room for the freezing workers? Voices; No. The Minister advised the men not to be so foolish as to begin differentiating between married and single men. ' Preference on jobs near the city would be given men with dependants. Money was available to start the works, the Minister said. Some of the members of the Government had been fighting for many years to do the best in the circumstances for the unemployed. There never was a country in the world which did not have a certain percentage of unemployed in good times and bad; that situation would remain while they had the capitalist system. No country was dealing with the problem of unemployment more successfully than New