UNEMPLOYED WORKERS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 29 May 1928, Page 3

UNEMPLOYED WORKERS.

DEMAND AWARD WAGES. DEPUTATION TO SIR FRANCIS BELL. [BY TEIiKORAPn —PRKBS ABBOOI YTION. ] CHRISTCHURCH, May 28. Sir Francis Bell this afternoon attended a meeting of unemployed at the Trades Hall at the men’s request. With Sir Francis Bell were Sir Heaton Rhodes, tbe Hon. F. J. Rolleston, the Mayor (Rev. J. K. Archer), and Messrs Sullivan, Howard and -McCombs, M’s:P. Speaking for the unemployed, Mr. S. Fournier, a well-known Communist, said the men had two requests to make: First, that the Government should institute an unemployment insurance scheme, and, secondly that it should provide work for those now unemployed at award rates. The men demanded those rates. Sir Francis Bell: You demand? Mr. Fournier: I used the term. Sir Francis Bell said the problem of unemployment was not different from the problem as encountered in other cities. He would ask the meeting not to use the word “demand” to the Government, dor, after all, it was only blank cartridge. It would be just as fair to the Government to “demand” that the. men should work at certain wages and under certain conditions. The need of the unemployed of Christchurch would he encountered by the Government along with that bf the unemployed in other parts of the country, hut no consideration would be given to any form of demand while the present Government was in office. Any consideration given would be from the point of view of what was best for the country.