THE UNEMPLOYED.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1160, 25 May 1894, Page 31

THE UNEMPLOYED.

From the date of the last meeting of the unemployed here up till May 16, 315 men, of whom 141 were married and 172 single, and with 536 persons dependent on them, have applied to the Labour Department foi work, and had their names registered on its books. Of these 53 married and 19 single men, with 229 persons dependent on them, have been sent to Government works, and 24 married and 73 single men, with 01 persons dependent on them, have been assisted to private work. This return, therefore, shows that 315 men have applied for assistance between the dates mentioned, and that 169 of thorn have received that assistance. Mrs Jessie Fulton asks us to acknowledge the following donations : —Mr Eassmusson, baker, six loaves dail}’-; Mr Thompson, 10s, also coals ; Mr Fitzgerald, blankets, also ss; Messrs Sargood, Son and Ewen, blankets. There was a gathering of the unemployed on the Te Aro Reclamation at 8 o'clock yesterday week, when the men were addressed by a man amed John Webb, a carpenter, living a' f horndon. He urge them to bo united, and said there was ; necessity for this if they were to do an; good for themselves, as they were standmj between two contending factions —th money ocracy who would not emplo; them, and tho Trades Unions wh would not work with them. He sai< it was a great shame that in : country so fertile as New so many men should bo in want of bread There should be a more equal distributioi of tho products of the earth, and it was fo them to say whether they would suffer a they were now doing, or whether they wouh unite with a view of getting redress fo their grievances in some legitimate shape o form. He thought the land laws wante( liberalising, and asserted that the specia settlements were a dead failure, pointing out in illustration £he village settlement: at Pahiatua, saying that not more than si: of the original village settlers were to b< found there now, the majority having beer obliged to sell out in consequence of beinjL in debt to the storekeepers. The meeting then concluded. The Wellington Garrison Band gave ar excellent performance on the Thorndor Esplanade on Sunday afternoon in aid oi the unemployed. The sum collected was £4 12s 3d. The following paragraph is from the Palmerston Times : —“ Last weejc a statement was made by one of tho unemployed at Wellington to the effect that a number of men and several women had been homeless at Palmerston. Mr Rutherfurd, the agent of the Bureau, was away at the time, but upon his return made every enquiry into the allegation, with the result that he could not discover a tittle of evidence to justify such a statement. He could not hear of any men being compelled to sleep out, but he did hear of a woman, who has since left the district, who passed the night in a stable. There are a few men out of work in the district, but they are all of a steady class, and some evidently can afford to wait for a job to their liking before turning to.” Regarding the unemployed, the Labour Tournal, issued on Monday, says There lias been a great deal of agitation among a certain class of men during the last few kveeks, much more, probably, than there tvas any occasion for. Several meetings vere held by men reported out of employnent. One of these we attended, and, from :he knowledge of our officers, gained by /■ears of experience of the Wellington men, ve should say that out of the estimated | 500 present there were at least 100 who vork on the wharves and about shipping. It being a slack day at their work, they of :ourse attended the meeting. It seems a >eculiar thing that in the late agitation tnd that of 12 months ago the leading nen should bo strangers, not only to the ity, but to the Colony. We do not j>reend to know the reason, but it remains a act that it is so.” The return of unemployed in the Welington district assisted by the Departnent of Labour during April gives the folowing figures : —SB married and 81 single, rith 265 persons dependent on them; SO were sent to private employment and 59 to Government works; 29 came from the South Island, eight from Great Britain and three from Australia. In an editorial footnote appended to a reprint article in the "Labour Journal” on “How to Help the Unemployed,” Mr Tregear says : —“ Our unemployed difficulty of this year is one of the moment,

owing to pressure from without. Wo shall have, however, a growing * unemployed ’ difficulty even in New Zealand, unless wo swiftly and strongly legislate to provide small holdings in tho country for landless men, and that will bo a mere ternporary p<*dilative.”

The Public Works Committee have decided to recommend to tho City Council that the action taken by tho Corporation officers with respect to providing road metal to bo broken by the recipients of charitable aid be approved.