LABOUR IN WELLINGTON

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 146, 21 June 1916, Page 8

LABOUR IN WELLINGTON

DIFFICULTY OF PROVIDING

EMPLOYMENT.

Year after .year,: during- the winter, months, large numbers of men drift to Wellington in search of employment, and this year it has been found especially difficult to provide for them; more so, as many of them only possess the qualifications which fit them for clerical work or light duties.1

The subject was mentioned to a Post reporter by the Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) this morning, who said that he sincerely, regrets being unable to supplement to any extent the work of the Labour Department in finding work-for these men. The position is intensified by the fact that preference of employment is being given' to returned discharged soldiers, and that tho public of Wellington is entering heartily into this proposal is evidenced in the latest official return showing the number of men unplaced in the principal centres.,' In Auckland the number is 70, in Christchurch 40, in Otago 62, while there are onljr five men so situated in Wellington. ' "This certainly indicates," said Mr. Luke, "that the people are doing all they can to employ returned soldiers. There are also a grea.t number of men who go into camp and break down owing to being unable tostand the training, while still others are sent back from the camp, because they have failed to develop sufficiently to warrant the authorities in sending them to the front."

The Mayor also pointed out that the City Council had recently passed what ought to be called a patriotic resolution to tho effect *that, so far as possible, returned soldiers are to be given preference in the matter of employment. Under ' the .existing' circumstances, the Mayor appeals to men from other centres not, to come to Wellington at prosent in search of employment.