HARD TIMES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16565, 1 June 1914, Page 4

HARD TIMES.

UNEMPLOYMENT IN AUCKLAND

BAD PROSPECTS FOR THE WINTER. [From Or/R Correspondent.] AUCKLAND, May 30

Winter tirao usually brings a slackening off in tho avenues of employment;, but apparently tho next few months will witness a period of stress never before experienced in Auckland, Alroudy both in skilled and unskilled trades there- is a largo and growing army of unemployed, and when a " Star " representative made a round of the Union offices at the Trader, Hall this morning ho was furnished in each and every instance with the same story of hard "times and little doing. i '• It is not an ordinary winter slackness but a general all-round slump," aaid Mr Arthur Rosser, speaking of tho position generally. Ho went on to say that there were hundreds of men out of employment in Auckland at the present time, and it was likely that as winter deepened the situation r would becomo more acute. It is the* usual thing for a good deal of unskilled labour to drift into the city at this time of tho year, but independently '.f this the position is exceedingly serious. In fact, it is in the skilled trades that the trouble is most noticeable. Tho close of tho Exhibition threw a good many people out of employment, then thero has been a considerable influx from the Old Country, and people arriving from the United Kingdom after a hard winter find it an additional hardship to reach Auckland during the winter months, when practically every trade reports a period of unprecedented Blackness. The strike, of course, has had its aftermath,, but Union secretaries are of the opinion that onlv on the waterfront is there any direct evidence of this Recently Mr Rosser, at the request of the rJisimp of Auckland, prepared a statement indicating what the position was amongst waterside workers. He compiled a list showing that those denied entrance to tho new Waterside Workers' Union included fifty men who had worked for years on the waterfront, somo of them having a record of forty years to their credit. These men, with dependents totalling over 150, had been shut out from their legitimate means of livelihood. ine Bishop, it is understood, is interceding on behalf of these men and their families. Referring to trades which are usually busy right through the year. Mr Rosser pointed out that in building operations there is now a noticeable lull, with the result that carpenters, bricklayers, painters, plumbers, and others are complaining or quiet times. In the coachbnilding tra<io Z k was very slack. The big firms were reducing hands and tariff refoim war, necessary if the advent of 'the motor-ear was not to have its effect on those engaged in this industry. Even in the printing trade business showed a falling off, and bookbinders and letterpress machinists were making for Australia. . , [II. Mr T. Blood worth, secretary of tho Carpenters' Union, said that although the Union non-employment, book only indicated forty men out of work, there were in reality a great many more. It had been suggested, he added, that the new award was probably the reason tor less employment, but the real cause undoubtedly was that most of the big buildings in course of erection in tho city had now been completed A good many people had come to Auckland attracted bv the work .offering in connection with the Exhibition, and had helped to swell the present list of unl cmploved. ... „. % Mr "T. Long, secretary of the Jrlotcl ' and Restaurants Employees' Union, said that thero were members of tho I Union out of work who made their inI quiries bv telephone. It was custom;ary at this time of the yea:-, when tne tourists' seasons slackened off, to find a good many hotel and boarding-house employees 'coming from Rotonia and elsewhere, to Auckland, but this fact alono could not account tor the great number of unemployed in his Union at the nresent time. Oih*r Union secretaries had similar stories to tell. Tt was , stated . that many members of the General Labourers 1 Union were out of employment, and that in the timber trade the , mills were reducing hand? all through the nrov.inc.ft,