OFFICIAL EXPLANATION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 267, 4 August 1908, Page 8

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION.

LABOUR, BUREAU'S METHODS. i . Regarding'the complaints made by a roijurned co-operative workor as to tho state .. Jif affairs at Broken River railway works • when ,a large batch of unemployed arrived • . thoro last week, the officer in charge jof the, /Labour Department's bureau at Christ- • 'Sbnrch told a 'reporter to-day that' it was fit unlikely the sudden arrival pf a large Ifimber of men' had taxed; the' resources • (omewhat of Broken River, but the largest 'lumber of men sent by the bureau on any ddo day was thirty-fdur, seven out of tho forty-ono' provided ; with : tickets" having stayed away. The erection of iho tents for the men was. quite a new thing. Ordinarily' v the newly-arrived 'workers were given a tent ' which'they could put up in any sheltered corner .they favoured. ■'He, had as.far as,he . could remember always made it clear to/the men applying for work that , the tents would ' be lent to them,; tho pick lent, and other tools, Ifko tho railway .fare, advanced. It . had always been .an.understoqd thing : oa cooperative works th'at. the 'shovels and other tools . were advanced, to bo paid for afterwards.' k. He had been asked by one man what the cost >o?'living was likely 7 to be, and re-, plied, having ,'in view a slight enhancement in prices owing:-to the extras-risks,'that it . • would; be but little; more - than in Christ-, church... The..man,; suggested'2ss. or '305., but ho had, replied that it would ■ bo nearer 10s.