THE UNEMPLOYED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 537, 18 June 1909, Page 8

THE UNEMPLOYED.

COVERNMENT WORKS,

THE MEN FOE MJSHFELLING. Mr. Collins, of the Labour Department, who is to take the first party of unemployed to the bush felling on the Rangitatau Block, next. Monday, mot 60 or 60 of the Wellington applicants yesterday. He states that they are a good class of men, and, in regard to most of them, it is easy to boliews their statements that they had had considerable experience in bushfelling. 1 The Minister for Labour (Hon. A.. W. Hogg) told a Dominion reporter yesterday that ho had received a telegram from the Mayor of Auckland, giving the number of unemployed'in that city as 700, and asking thai some steps should be taken to relieve them as soon as passible. The Mayor of Timaru bad wired the Minister that there are not many unemployed in .that town. Mr. Hogg added that he intended to have road works prosecuted as actively as possible, :but it would be necessary .to be cautious, so as to make the money that had been, voted last out until after the resumption of Parliament. •

RETRENCHMENT. STATEMENT BY- A DEPARTMENTAL HEAD. With reference to the article on the retrenchment scheme in yesterday's Dominion, ■a statement is made by the head of one Department, which goes to show that' tho methods described have .not been followed- in every Department. The head of this Department states that, when asked for recommendations as to the shortening of the staff, ha named 20 officers, whose services, he suggested, should be dispensed with. His recommendations wore adopted, with tho exception that two officers, whose dismissal ho had proposed, were retained, and two others dismissed in their stead. The alteration was 'not made, ho is confident, for any political reasons, but solely on account of tile' unfortunate private circumstances of the two officers who were retained.

THE SETTLEMENT SCHEME. , LAND IN FOUR DISTRICTS. Preliminary work in connection with the scheme for settling retrenched Civil Servants on the land, is actively proceeding. The Wellington Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr. J. Mackenzie) is having two blocks on the Main Trunk lino subdivided into suitablo sections. These areas, are situated between Taihapo and Raurimu. Other blocks, jn the' Auckland, Taranaki,■ and Nelson Land Districts are also : being prepared.