THE LABOUR MARKET TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1914, Page 2

THE LABOUR MARKET TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — May I ask through your columns what is going to be done to provide employment for the new arrivals in New Zealand? At present there is not sufficient work for men already settled here. I have to keep a small boardinghouse as my husband is out of work, and two of my boarders are out of work, and it is |}uite heart-breaking. They start off in search of a job every morning, and all line in again about 12 o'clock — No luck ; can't find a job. One of them tried up country. He got a job from a local rsgistiy office — bush felling; he started off for Featherston, the nearest railway station; the camp was a 7s 6d coach ride from the station. When he arrived on tlie scene he found there was another fourteen miles to walk from the coach, through bush, and over hills, and across creeks, etc. He said he would not have minded all that if the camp had been decent, but they had to shoot wild pig for meat, or whatever was about. There was no milk, only boards to lie on, and no conveniences to get a wash. He was so disgusted that after he had taken a rest, he set off to walk back to the coach again. I ask, Is there any encouragement for men to go up country? My brother came to New Zealand last August, with the object of going on a farm to work. He went up to Taihape and Inglewood in answer to aft advertisement, and found the jobs did not exist. When he got up there, he tried several different places, and at last packed up and went back to England, while he had the money to pay his fare. New Zealand is cracked up so good at Home in En-gland that people think it is easy to get work here, but my husband has been- here two years, and is still ( no better off as far as work is concerned. I have no doubt there are .plenty more men the' same. We are told to keep the cradles full, but I ask what encouragement have we to bring children into the world when we are practically living from hand to mouth. Why does New Zealand cry out for more emigrants and more population when it cannot give work to the people already here? I don't know what we shall do in the winter time. I have to work hard all day to keep things going. Hoping you will find room for this letter, — I am, etc., A WORKING MAN'S WIFE,