THE UNEMPLOYED.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15715, 7 September 1911, Page 6

THE UNEMPLOYED.

Thf. meeting of unemployed workers held in Cathedral Square yesterday did not furnish a reliable basis for on estimate of the amount of actual distress existing in Christchurch, since it was obvious to tlio most casual observer that a largo proportion of the men wlio assembled liad not been brought face to face with actual want. Many of them, too, were apparently well fitted physically for tlio work which tlio Minister of Labour has stated definitely is available for able-bodied men in connection with the railway construction operations on tlio Midland and South Island Trunk lilies. One of tho speakers explained that some of the unemployed present “ were there because they had refused to act in a manner not conducive to the betterment of tlio workers,” and if this statement meant that thoy had refused to move out of their own branch of trado hr to accept work of an inconvenient character it scarcely constituted a valid claim on public sympathy. But wo do not doubt that there is some genuine unemployment in the city at tho present time, and tho men who aro suffering need not bo

judged by tho silly talk of ono or two of their spokesmen, who presumabjj" were self-elected. Tlio difficulty is ono for the municipal authorities to face, and wo hope* that tho necessary amount of organised effort will he undertakenTho Government cannot fairly be asked to do more than it has done already to rolioro a temporary stringency in tho local’ labour market, and if it is true, as the Mayor said yesterday, that somo of tho men who have been complaining do not go to work when it is found for them, tho task of doaling with tho others should bo all tho easier. Thcro can bo no good reason why Canterbury should havo surplus labour.