GOVERNMENT AND THE AUCKLAND UNEMPLOYED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7514, 18 December 1885, Page 5

GOVERNMENT AND THE AUCKLAND UNEMPLOYED.

[by telegraph.—OWN correspondent.! Wellington, Thursday. I hap a conversation to-day with the Minister of Public Works, on this subject. Ho said that he was in communication with the local authorities, and would do wtiat he could to afford relief, but so far as he had been informed he had no reason to bo assured that the relief he could give would be acceptable to those who were asking for work, i'he oilers he had made were not eagerly accepted. A few men had expressed themselves willing to accept the terms, but when it came to the test there were only live or six who said " They would think over it." Under such circumstances the men could not be greatly distressed. If they had present means they had no reasonable claim for consideration aDy more than other classes of tho community when work in their respective callings became scarce In large communities numbering 30,000 or 40,000 of populations, it was as easy to ascertain the stale of the labour market as doing a very simple sum in arithmetic. To ask the Government to interpose would be to ask an injustice to be done to those who were in employment at rates of wages that were agreed to by employers and employed. With respect to assistance to enable labourers to emigrate from places where the labour market was overstocked to where labour was in demand, the Hon. Mr. Richardson said that the experiment had been formerly tried, and the facilities were greatly abused. Taking Wanganui as an instance, it might be found that Wanganui did not want the kind of labour they would get, and the labourers would also find that the work obtainable was not suited to them, or such as they could do. In such a case the clamour of the workmen to get back to where they came irom would be as great as it had been before. Their poaitiou would in such circumstances be worse, instead of better. He was not prepared to say how the Government might act in particular cases where a man might have work to go to in a distant place and had not the means of reaching it. He considered that much of the outcry that was made had been got up by two or three agitators. If the Government were to act upon the recommendations of these persons, the effect might possibly be to disturb the rate of wages all round, and that would be the reverse of a benefit to the working body aa a class. He had a higher opinion of the working class than those who professed to be their advisers. Work had been offered such n3 the Government could give, and at rates which it could afford to give, but workmen must be prepared to give work for pay, whether the Government or private persons were the employers. Agitations of the kind which had arisen were likely to depress the labour market more and more, by creating a fear on the part of those who had employment to offer that they would have to pay a higher rate than they could afford or than they could got the work done for at some other time. While oil this subject, I extract the following paragraph, which appears in the Post this evening, for the information of those whom it may concern :—" A Wellington gentleman who is now residing in Auokland writes that 'there is no truth whatever in the cry of the Auckland | unemployed. Mechanics are scarce, buildings are going up in all directions with extreme rapidity ; farmers around Auckland have much difficulty in carrying out operations ; and it is believed that several of the Road Hoards and County Councils intend stopping work until the harvest is gathered in. The cry must be raised for political purposes ; but there is nothing in it. There are many who will not work at any price, and who will sit all day at a sireet corner, growling at the Government and at everything else.' "