OUT OF WORK.
THE ELUSIVE BILLET. WHAT THE EMPLOYMENT ACENTS SAY. NO UNEMPLOYED." "' : "Mueli has :; been heard of late, and not H little'seen, :: of'tho "out-of-work" individual. Not long ago crowds of them lapped greedily .•at; the pearls of wisdom which floated from ( the .lips of sundry orators!, at tho Queen's Statue. .A procession of them swept along . the quay' one' afternoon and bearded tho - •• T?rime"'-Stinister in'his' den. 1 ' •; Groups • of- •. them haunt tho august precincts of the La- 1 ■ hour lU.nion: offices, and other groups climb' monotonously up tho stairs leading to sundry ~ 're'gistry"bfS6eri:' And'among all'these is the ■'Spiritless'individual; wholooks for work and fbrve'ntly praysithat :nofe find it; ■ "No Unemployed." ' - A Dominion reporter paid a visit to'- one • jof the leading registry offices in town, I-smiled ingratiatingly . upon , the , proprietress •thereof, ■ and,* remarking that it was a very ■■fine day, .-observed, that it .was a-pity to think' '•that''so 'many-individuals had nothing 'to ■>t do. The unemployed question quite dar- ' kened the otherwise cheerful prospect. v ~v '•"There are : no' unemployed," -said tha lady, with emphasis. . The pressman was ■■■■'■ startled: ' Surely the lady had not seen tho long procession'.which- : wound its way along tho quay—a procession bagged at tho knees, ■ 'frayed- at. tho Wheels,' and- or- hopeful purpose' in pursuit of the elusive billet? But she \ .;]}?s, seeing, . had not believed, i' Shei-tknew -'some r of themj - she said./"There hare no unemployed," she reiterated. "Tho •men won't take work when it is offered to •' i them." . ■• ■■ ■' Tho-'reporter': begged' her tri explain.' " I'll givo you an instaiice," said tho lady. " The other day, I advertised for seven rab- ; bit-poisoners-r-nice easy work, just walking over the country with a little bag over their v shoulders. I got forty-nine applicants. But when I wanted to supply vacancies for ' twenty farm-labourers, with wages from 255. ■ ;.to''.3os; 'found,' I got two— — only .two. 'Oh. no/ they say, ' we're not going into'the'country, we want a job in ' town.' If thes honestly; wanted work— , : starving for it —they would go fast enough. No,: tlio sort of billet that attracts most of thorn is a hotel rouse-about, or rabbit-pois- . :;Oning; -They'll take: these fast eiiongh :oven , if they are in the country." , ; How about the ladies? ! ;.i " Well; of course, there is a bigger demand for fomalo labour, but some of the applicants :' for work are as bad as those men I was .talking: about: .They .want to'-pick and choose. - . They don't want this, and they don't want that, and so on."
• Do '.you have' many applicants for workboth sexes ?' c-':.!ioli yes. -They keep coming up the'stairs all day. One or two of them get too much for me. The other day a man came up—ho ' ;was in liquor—and threatened to make me- a get him something to do. I ordered hiiu out, of. ( the office.".' ■ Tho reporter thou took his leave, remarking," went; that' he had' extracted from the discussion much food for philosophic re--fltotion, rUndeslrable: Immlgrantsr - The proprietress of another registry office jn the., course of a : brief t 'conversation, expressed ' some opinion about the ship-loads of: immigrants which are landed at tho various ports of the country at regular inter- ' vals. _ "They're all right enough in their way," she' oßserved, "tut we haven't got the sort of' work for them that they vwant. Warehousemen j clerks, and themi sort—that's what J get in this office sometimes after a big_Home boat gets here.' They come up in theirs tan boots and kid gloves, but ,what - can I do with them? They can't milk cows or "do' farm work. They're willing to try, :' 'but'i'ca'n't undertake to recommend them to only thing they can do, outside of their calling, is to get billets as porters rt'or-lntbhenmen. But these are scarce.'!.;, "Spring is Coming." ' --"There's always work for -women," said another ~ f employment-agency , proprietress. "Btlt tho men -—" she shook her head—; - 'why, I had thirty, here to-day, all looking foj> work. . Some ;came off the Sydney boat, 'arid niost'of the other men just out from. Home.' There's too "many 1 coming out from .JiQme," she concluded, with a sigh. "Things . .have .been- worse this last month than I've ■known them for some time, but. there ought tp.bo-an-improvement soon-no w-the spring's coming in." Poor Look-out for the Navvy. ' "Mr;~M.' j. Reardon, secretary of the General Labourers' Union, says that the prospects for the general labourer aire not particularly .bright. There' were over one hundred men ; amployed on. the-Duppa Street: Park, but thjs...number,has been gradually reduced to w abi>ut;;a .dozen. Twenty-three men will be thrown-out of work in another week by the completion of the big culvert at Island Bay. "Some of tho men had, of course, left the . district and found work'elsewhere, but unless some big contract came to light soon, ther-navvy would- be in a serious position. The' suburban, drainago scheme had let a ray of hope into tho situation, but now that work was hung up, and thoro was practically nothing, pending of. sufficient import-' anco-to absorb a large supply of labour.
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 292, 3 September 1908, Page 7
Word Count
833OUT OF WORK. Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 292, 3 September 1908, Page 7
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