UNEMPLOYED QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13816, 31 July 1908, Page 6

UNEMPLOYED QUESTION.

CHRISTCHURCH CASES SETTLED. [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] • Chiustchurch, Thursday. The back of the unemployed difficulty seems to have been broken. The Department has placed altogether over 100 men on the Midland railway works during the past few weeks. The Salvation Army kept " open house " at the barracks in Chester-street to-day, the object being to assist men and women who were in distress, owing to want of employment. The callers were mostly women whose distress was not caused through any lack of employment, but through the inability of their husbands, through illhealth or other causes, to work. None of them were starving, and the Army does not intend to continue the experiment any longer, as the day's operations showed that there was practically no necessity for it.

CONDITIONS AT MASTERTON. [BY TELEGRAPH.OWN CORRESPONDENT.] ! Masterton, Thursday. From inquiries made regarding the condition of the labour market and the general business condition of Masterton and district, it appears that, beyond the ordinary winter slackness, there is not any marked depression, such as is affecting the larger centres at present. The municipal general labour staff, exclusive of the abattoirs staff, is about 60, and the expenditure of loan monev has proved something of a blessing at such a time. The fall in wool, following on a bad season, has undoubtedly affected the agricultural labour market very much, and money is rather tight.