The Sydney Unemployed.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1359, 7 May 1895, Page 3

The Sydney Unemployed.

When one contemplates the magnitude and acuteness of the distress now being experienced by the working classes of New South Wales, the unemployed trouble of our own colony sinks into insignificance. What are our few scores of workleas men by comparison with the thousands who are in vain seeking employment in Sydney 1 According to a recent issue of the Telegraph there was on a recent day 638 men employed on the relief works at the Centennial Park Keaorve, and as a fresh relay of “ half-day men ” were to come on in the afternoon and join those who worked the day out, one might safely estimate the total at over 1000 men. From these numbers, and from the fact that in less than a month between 2000 and 3000 men have been ticketed on and off there, an idea may be formed of the volume of distress in the city ; for these men are only paid in rations—it is a case of working for food. This is a scale ot employment and payment: Single men work half-a-diiy for a single ration (4lbs bread, 31bs meat, 21 bs sugar, and 4ozs tea) aud receive one tin of milk ; married without family, work one day for two rations, one tin of milk, and 21 bs rice, sago, or oatmeal ; married men with one child, one day and a-half for three rations, one tin milk, and 41bs rice, etc; those with two children receive one day and a-half, three rations, one tin milk, and Gibs rice, etc.; with three children or four, two days for four rations, one tin milk and 71bs rice, etc. ; with five children or six, two days and a-half for live rations, two tins milk and 71bs rice, etc. ; with seven children or eight, three days for six rations, two tins milk and 71bs rice, etc. The object ol the work is, primarily, charity. Indeed many of the men who go there and put in a halfday or a day, according to their rights, are, the Telegraph says, as unlit for the work as a pig is unfit to swim. Such is the present state ot affairs in Sydney; the position is certain to be much worse as winter advances, and we may expect a further influx of population to this colony in the course of the next three months.— Lgltellon Tunes.