DISTRESS IN WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9495, 26 April 1894, Page 5

DISTRESS IN WELLINGTON.

[BY TELEGRAPH.— CORRESPONDENT. ] Wellington, Wednesday. There can be no longer a doubt as to the existence of deep distress In this city. To all appearances trade and business is brisk, but "the strong man helpless," the children whose parents " aro not able to buy schoolbooks," the increase of " beggars," as well as " immgrants," with nowhere to go, and the "vagrant," all have rapidly oome into evidence within the last few months. Of course the crucial test iii the condition of the labour market, and the number of able-bodied men seeking, but unable to find, employment. Yesterday, although the business fchorqutrhfnroa, wore their usual aspect, the reclaimed land, and the open ground of some public buildings showed signs of the passing of what resembled very closely a revolutionary period. Meetings of the unemployed in various stages of political excitement were held, and deputations sent to the Mayor and the Premier. To-day groups of employed are gathered at the end of the wharf, and at various points on the reclaimed land, People in the town say there are more than a thousand in this city actually out of work, and that there are several thousands working short hours, which reduces their aggregate earnings if divided amongst them to starvation pay. The charges made against the Government exceed in gravity any that have been previously made. For example, the Government have been charged within these two days by working men with baking on batches of men for convenience, employing them for a few weeks, and then dismissing them to take on another gang, dismissing these in turn. From one point of view, however, this would appear to show a desire to distribute fairly among the unemployed the means the Government have at command; but those employed said it was for a different reason. The relieving officer yesterday called the attention of the Benevolent trustees to the case of a man and his wife and family who had been found living in a fowl house, sleeping on a number of cases with only a blanket and sheet, and paying for that six shillings a week rent. That is in this morning's paper. Other cases before the Benevolent Society manifest distress nearly as bad. The man who was connected with the petition of Sir Robert Stout has left his family. His effects were seized. Nothing was left to his wife and family but a frying-pan and a few sticks, and there are voices from the wilderness as well as from the town, seeing that the country papors tell the same story. Mr. Tregear told the Premier and the unemployed that if they wanted comparisons, they had only to go to Auckland, and they would see real poverty, hundreds of little children going to school without shoes and stockings. The Minister of Labour is at present in Auckland, and it might answer a wise purpose to enable him to Bee the distress there, for his special information. The following sub-leader in the Ministerial Journal this morning attracts a great deal of attention. " The greatest offenders against the State's rule of duty are the Railway Commissioners. They will make no concession in the passenger rates charged to the unemployed, and thoy insist upon cash payments. Every penny must be paid to them in cash. Thus it happens that the greater parb of the money voted by Parliament for the relief of the unemployed passes from one department of State to another department. Now, all the steamship companies, and the Manawatu Railway make concessions. The least the Commissioners could do would be to follow their example. The most they ought to do would be to carry the men for nothing. They ought to do the most, not the leasb. At present they take care to do neither. The carriage of all the unemployed in their trains would cost them practically nothing extra ; on the other hand, while the railways would lose nothing, the vote for relieving the unemployed by taking them to the centres of labour would be made the most of, instead of the least, as is the case under the hidebound system of the Commissioners."