GOVERNMENT AND UNEMPLOYED.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11333, 29 July 1897, Page 6

GOVERNMENT AND UNEMPLOYED.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Many thanks for your ■ remarks upon the above subject in your issue of Saturday, July 24, including - , of course your reference to the chef d’ceuvre of officialdom in respect to the matter of letter writing. It is a perfect disgrace that you have had lately to take departments to task on two occasions for impolite correspondence. With regard to the question, “If there are unemployed who are willing to take work where the Government has it for them, I think they can be provided for; but the Government cannot establish works to suit the, convenience of those who are'unemployed;” this entire sentence argues the Government's incompetency to deal with a great national question, which will have to bo dealt with sooner or later. Consequently the sooner “I” throws up the sponge, or rather the people throw them up and put in a Ministry who will work on State co-operative lines, the bettor tor humanity at large. I understand that one-eighth of our adult population are State employed; all we further require is for the State’s functions to be further developed as rapidly as possible, so as to take in the other seven-eighths. When it is remembered that, according to the census returns of April 18, 1896, there were 17,396 persons out of employment in this country, it is high time that those at the helm of affairs grappled witn this question and dealt with it in a permanent manner; otherwise they are shirking a serious responsibility.—l am, &c., EBENEZER EARLY.