UNEMPLOYMENT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 1 June 1926, Page 7

UNEMPLOYMENT.

RELIEF FOR CASUAL LARGER. PUBLIC WORKS IN HAWERA. Relief for the casual labourers at piesent unemployed in Hawera, and better times tor various skilled workers, are promised by tlie probable early commencement of the reconstruction of the South Road crossing.

Going further into the question of a surfeit of labour on the ideal market, a reporter fiom The Star waited upon the Mayor (Mr. E. A. Pacey) to obtain" his views. The Mayor sard there was no question about unemployment prevailing in the district at present. It applied chiefly to the unskilled labour ranks, about riity pet cent, of those without work being men who had come to Hawera from other towns. There were many cases of actual distress. One man who had called upon Mr. Pacey had come from Wellington in his search for employment. The principal cause of the excess of applicants over jobs was the paying off of dairy factory and timber mill hands. Turning to the skilled labour market, Mr. Pacey said ' that, while there lhight be no actual want and unemployment, there was nevertheless a dearth of work upon which present staffs could be employed, and some firms were just able to keep their liaiKis on. . . At this stage of the interview Mi. Id. G. Dickie, M.P., joined the group and gave the information contained m the first paragraph of this article. Mr Dickie said that yesterday he had been waited on by a deputation of unemployed married men, for whom Mr L. Sales had been the spokesman. Relief from the present inability to secure work was asked. Mr. Dickie immediately got in touch with the Mavor, and with Mr. J. B. Murdoch, chairman of the Hawera County Council, with the result that he sent a wire immediately to the Prime Minister (lit. Hon. J. G. Coates) suggesting that the work in connection with the reconstruction of the South Road crossing be gone on with at once. . • The Hon. G. J. Anderson (Minister of Labour) has charge of the unemployment question, and Mr. Coates telegraphed this morning that the Hawera. position lias been referred to Mr. Anderson . , Mr. Dickie later communicated by telephone with the District Railway Engineer at Wanganui, and was informed that a man would he sent up today to make the preliminary survey of tlie crossing. This would probably mean that the construction work would he commenced in three weeks or a 111 work to be undertaken the construction of a ferro-concrete oveibridge and approaches, is a large one and Air. Dickie opines .that it will cost from £6OOO to £7OOO. As it is right-ao-ainst the town, the job will be eminently suitable for meeting unemployment in Hawera. Mr. Dickie said he would go to Wellington to-morrow and endeavour to facilitate, where possible, the prosecution of the work.