FINDING EMPLOYMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15626, 4 June 1914, Page 8

FINDING EMPLOYMENT.

WORK FOR THE IDLE. EFFORTS OF THE GOVERNMENT. [BY TELEGRAPH.— CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Wednesday. Discussing with a reporter the question of unemployment, the Hon. W. Fraser, Minister for Public Works, stated that the Department had received many applications for work in different parts of the Dominion, but they were mostly from men who did not want to leave town. A number of the applicants were artisans and married men who could not afford to go out of town, and the Public Works Department was not in a position to provide for them. The Government, however, was in plats providing employment in other ways, as, for instance, by tho expenditure of £8000 upon buildings and painting at the Seacliff Mental Hospital. The new Parliamentary Buildings, at Wellington, would also provide employment for a large number of men as time went on. As to men who were willing to go into the country, the Minister stated that he had made arrangements at a number of places to give them work. Recently, arrangements had been mado to send 50 men away from Wellington, and work could be found for the unemployed of Christchurch on various road works. j

The position at Dunedin was that the district engineer had been unable, for some time past, to get the mon he wanted for the Catlins and Roxburgh Railway construction works. Instructions had been given at the end pf last week to put on men who wore recommended by tho Labour Department. In accordance with the usual custom, men would have to apply j for work through the Labour Department,'