GENERAL NEWS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1573, 12 March 1887, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

The Mayor of Christchurch sends the following letter to the papers :— " In reference to a local in the Press,- r and to 'prevent disappointment and misconstruction of actions, I deem it necessary to explain my intention- in'ithe face of the depression and want of employment amongst the working class. Ido not think I should .be doing right to expend any, funds on the openingof thenew offices, which would only gratify a few, and would do no good. I have, therefore, decided to lay out the cost of the opening ceremony in the purchase of fifty or more tons of coal from Mr., C. W; Turner, wbo has kindly offered to supply them at cost price for the intended purpose. I will distribute the coals by orders • at the beginning of the winter to those needing them. — A. Ayers, Mayor." ■,A :new Plymouth paper reports that rather a complicated case came before the Charitable Aid Board on Wednesday. An individual put in an appearance, and asked that his present allowance be increased, intimating that although he broke his five yards of stone a week he was only paid ior three. It came out, however, that the applicant had deserted his wife, who also is now on tbe charitable aid list, and had taken up his quarters with a young woman who makes frequent appearances in tbe Police Court on charges of drunkenness. The applicant explained that his wife had ill-used him very much by throwing boiling water on him and kicking him. As to his residence with the other woman, it was not kis fault ; she would not go away. He further accused his wife of living with someone else. It was decided that the application for further assistance be not entertnined. The individual is also to be prosecuted for wife desertion.

A private telegram lias been received in Christchurch from Greymouth to tbe effect that there is plenty of employment on the Midland railway works for good railway men at 8s per day. There is plenty of food at moderate rates, and careful men can save half their wages. On the other hand,' another correspondent, writing from the same place, warns bushmen and others from going to the West Coast in the hopes of obtaining work on the Midland railway. Men are trooping in from all directions as if to a new rush, and unless some new contracts are let quickly, the unemployed difficulty will soon be felt with an intensity hitherto unknown in this colony. It is no good men coming on the strength of contractors alleged by agents to be in want of I menr On arrival at West Coast they are Bare to be told there is no work for them. He Bays it is really painful to see men arriving daily who have only managed to make up" enough to defray their passage, and have neither means of supporting themselves, nor of going elsewhere, and no prospects of getting work. Wages on the Midland contract are, he says, about to be reduced from 9s to 8s a day, and owing to the weather, men, even when they get work, cannot make more than half time.