UNEMPLOYMENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 June 1921, Page 3

UNEMPLOYMENT

INCREASE AT CHRISTCHURCH. j (Special to the Star) t CHRISTCHURCH, June 28. , Unemployment last week showed an L ' increase in Christchurch and district. 1 During the week, according to figures ' of the Labour Department, 33 unemI ployed persons were provided with ■j work through the Government’s l agency, and 21 were placed through - the agency at the Repatriation Depart--1 ment Of this total 31 were placed • on Government relief works, there be- - ing no other employment suitable, and J the balance with private employers. [ Sixty-eight are still on the books • which, when compared with the figur- ■ es for the proceeding week, shows an ■ increase of 16. ' The Repatriation Department which has 49 men on its books shows an m- • crease-. of six on the week. ‘The situation,” sai(| an officer of . the Labour Department, ‘‘is not near- . ly so satisfactory as it was a short while ago when we had private emj plovers coming forward and absorbing ’ a certain amount of casual labour. ' Now that has almost ceased. The men unemployed are mostly general , labourers.” ‘‘The worst of the season is yet to > come,” said a social service worker, i “At present we have numbers of famil- • ies who are hard up and need help, but that is more or less seasonal. In normal conditions it is later in the

HUIIIICU V.V'lAXl* year. We expect, unemployment to increase and- then we may have something of a problem on our hands.” DISTRESS IN AUCKLAND. (From Our Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, June 27. The present winter season has brought to many families in Auckland hardship and distress, such as they have not known for many years past. The city's social workers have- had an increasing number cf visitors seeking help. Among them are women who have had nothing to give their children to eat for a week, save bread and thin stew ; old age pensioners, feeble with infirmity, wearing brown paper in their boots instead of soles ; widows with families of five of six little ones, and nothing but a small pension to meet all their wants. Those are all actual cases vouched for by workers, are striving valiantly to carry on their good work against odds. These and other stories of distress were borne out by the relieving officer of the Charitable Aid Board, who stated that the Board was at present aid in- 200 families,’ all of them in dire need.