UNEMPLOYMENT-AN ESTIMATE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 139, 14 June 1909, Page 2

UNEMPLOYMENT-AN ESTIMATE.

BETWEEN FOUR AND FIVE THOUSAND OUT OF WORK. Dining his speech on the Address-in-Reply, Mr. D. M'Laren gave some information he had gathered concerning the extent to which unemployment prevails jn New Zealand. His estimate was that altogether there are about 4500 out of work in the Dominion, of whom 3000 are in the larger towns and 1500 in the smaller towns and country districts. The figures for the towns he gave as follows : — Wellington, 1000 j Auckland, 500; Christchurch, 400; Dunedin, 100; Invercargill, 300; Timaru, 100; West Coast, 400; Wanganut, 200. He admitted that in some cases his informants might have rather over-estimated the number, but in other cases they had un-der-estimated it. Close investigation made of 199 cases in Christchurch showed that the pinch began to be acute some three months ago, and was becoming worse instead of better. Some men had been out of work for as long as five months, and most of those who had been idle for the longest periods were immigrants, who had never been able to obtain work since their arrival here. Mr. M'Laren also gave the number of men who would be thrown out of work at the Government Printing Office if Parliament were to be prorogued, viz., 20 compositors, 5 bookbinders, and 10 machinists. To show what chance they would have of pblaining employment elsewhere, he addfed that in Wellington there were already 21 compositors out of employment, 15 in Auckland, 12 in Christchurch, and 12 in Dunedin. IN THE BUSH. Mr. G. V. Pearce (Patea) had a few words to say, as an expert, on the Government's proposal to offer bush-felling to the unemployed. He knew something about bush-felling, he said, and he had done the work himself. If the Government could not put the men at work on the roads, the men would not be well employed at bush-felling. On the roads they were under efficient supervision, but at bush-felling there were difficulties, in the way of supervision, besides which road-making works were necessary to open up the lands available for settlement in various districts.