STRICKEN LANCASHIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20496, 22 February 1930, Page 11

STRICKEN LANCASHIRE.

PLIGHT OF UNEMPLOYED

WEAVERS IN POVERTY.

SUFFERINGS OF WOMEN.

PEOPLE'S BARE EXISTENCE.

HOPE FOR BETTER BAYS.

By Talecrsph—Press Association—Copyright. /(Received February 21, 9 L> p m.l LONDON, Feb. 21. Lancashire is now facing the darkest fcour io her industrial history. Week by areek unemployment is growing apace. Roughly, 250.C00 Lancashire cotton operalive; are out of work. The weaving section is in a worse itate of poverty than ever before, with mfierings undreamed of in the heyday of is prosperitv. Hundreds of homes are within a hair's breadth of ruin, and the neopie /are living from hand to mouth, although naturally amid the despondency »nd gloom there is a lingering hope that 'he reorganisation of the whole trade will fcftore belter times.

The women are the heaviest sufferers. They find themselves discharged by the irade in which they work with a real oride. A weaver's average weekly wage for months past has been less than 30s. [n order to make a decent living, wives have gone to work alongside their husbands. To-day they have been robbed of that opportunity.

Real poverty is prevailing among thoulands of middle-aged spinsters, who have worked in the mills all their lives. The extent of the unemployment is gained from the fact that in Nelson, a typical weaving town of 15.000 operatives, this week there were 4000 people oct of work, and this number is growing weekly. In addition to this vary few of the mills are working anything like full time.

The Lancashire cotton trade has suffered severely from loss of trade. In the last 16 years the trade has lost 3000 million square yards of cotton cloth, of ■which half is concerned with India and one-sixth with China. Japan has largely increased her exports to these two countries. Two or three shifts are worked in

overseas countries, and wages are very much lower. The Lancashire operatives opDOse more thau one shift. There was a wages dispute last year, and a committee was appointed under Sir Rigby Smith as chairman, which in its award made a reduction in wages of about 6j per cent. Most of the mills did not run to full capacity at any time. For many months a large number bf mills were closed. At present a. Government Committee of Inquiry is iiyvestigating the trade. It is really a sub-committee of the Bureau ot Civil Research.

A step, toward reorganisation of the trade ''/?• s the formation of Lancashire C/Otron Corporation, Limited, with 50 companies, included, comprising 5.000.000 sninijfe's. An important combine was also rr.adp in the Egyptian spinning section of the trade.