TIME FOR ACTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16665, 25 September 1914, Page 6

TIME FOR ACTION.

Whether or not tha main share of censure for the slow and inadequate provisions fhat have been made to relieve the unemployment difficulty in Christchurch belongs to the Government is a question worth seriously discussing. Many of those concerned are certainly blaming the Administration quite freely. It was stated by the Mayor of Christchurch at a conference of local bodies' representatives yesterday that if the City Council had waited for the Government to do something in the matter the men out of work would have starved. The Mayor of Spreydon, +oo, pointed out that his Council was unable to carry out drainage work—a very necessary thing in itself, apart from the liading of employment—because it could not get a State loan. Hence it. is plain that men in a position to know are dissatisfied with the Government, and their displeasure is probably not due altogether to imagination. However, the more practical thing to diacuss just now is what can be dbne to find work for idle men with familioa in urgent want, rather than to apportion responsibility for what has not been done. The unemployed—and the public—have reason to be disappointed at the futile results of the almost daily meetings and conferences of the last five or six weeks. It is not flattering to the collective intelligence of the community if it cannot find useful, remunerative work for the comparative few who are unemployed owing to exceptional circumstances, and we do earnestly hope that some approach to finality will be reached at the conference that is to be held to-day. The difficulty of getting a number of local bodies to agree to expenditure upon a oommon object is, of course, not to be depreciated in an off-hand fashion, but it can surely be overcome through the combined wisdom of our public men. It is, for instance, not unreasonable fco suppose that the Government would give a subsidy up to half the cost for the completion of the Lyttelton-Sumnor road, lor half a century it has been rt reproach and a menace alike to Christchurch city and all its suburbs that they have been dependent upon a

single line of communication ■ with the port, and that line though a tunnel liable to stoppage by physical mischance, such as a collapse duo to earthquake or other causes. Only by good fortune has very serious inconvenience been escaped during all theso .year;, and tho risk no doubt increases with the ago of the tunnel. Here is a worlj that is, as we have said, of importance to tho city and the whole of its suburbs—a work upon which all tho local bodies within a distance of several miles would bo justified in spending money on a fair proportionate basis. Here, too, is an enterprise that might reasonably clnim tho sympathy of tho Government and its immediate assistance in the shape of a £ for £ subsidy. Such a work would give a largo amount of employment, which is tho primary question at issue, siuco the expenditure would bo practically all in wages, and it would provide for all time an alternate means of communication with our seaport and remove what must be to thoughtful citizens -a constant cause of apprehension.