HARD TIMES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12253, 2 June 1914, Page 1

HARD TIMES.

UNEMPLOYMENT IN AUCKLAND

BAD PROSPECTS FOR THE

WINTER

(Lyttelton. Times' Correspondent.) Auckland, May 30. Winter time usually brings a slack--ening off in the avenues of employment, but apparently the nest few months will witness a period of stress never before experienced in Auckland. Already both in skilled and unskilled trades there is a large and growing army of unemployed, and when a Star representative made a- round of the Union offices at the Trades Hall this morning he was furnished in each and every instance with the same story of hard' times and little doing. "It is not .an. ordinary winter slackness but a genr-rnl all-round slump," said Mr Arthur JR-osser, speaking of the position generally. He went on to say tliat there were hundreds of men out of employment in Auckland at th p present time, and it was likely that as winter deepened the situation would become more acute. It is the usual thing for a good deal of unskilled labor to drift into the city at this time .of the year, but independently of this the position is exceedingly serious. In fact, it is in the skilled trades that the trouble is most noticeable. The close of the Exhibition threw a good many people out of employment, then there hag been a considerable- influx from the Old ] Country, and people arriving from the United Kingdom after a hard winter find it an additional hardship to reach Auckland during the winter months, when practically every trade reports a period of unprecedented slackness. The strike", of course, has had its altermath, but Union secretaries are of the_ opinion that only on the waterfront .is there any direct:, evidence of this. Recently Mr Rosser, at the request of the Bishop of Auckland, prepared a- statement indicating what the position was amongst waterside workers. He compiled a list showing that those denied entrance to the new Waterside Workers' Union included 50 men who had worked for years on the waterfront, some of them having a record of 40 years to their credit. These men, with dependents totalling over 150, had been shut outfrom their legitimate means of livelihood. The Bishop, it is understood, is interceding on behalf of these men and thoir families. Referring to trades which are usually busy' right through the year, Mr Rosser pointed out that in building operations there is now a noticeable lull, with the result that carpenters, bricklayers, painters, plumbers, and others are complaining of quiet times. In the coachbuilding trade work was very slack. The big firms were reducing" hands, and tariff reform was. necessary if the advent of the motor-car was not to_ have its effect on those engaged in this industry. Even in the printing trade business showed a falling off. and bookbinders and letterpress machinists made for Australia. Mr T. Bloodworth, secretary of tlio Carpenters' Union, said that although the Union non-employment book only indicated 40 men out of work, there were in reality a great many more. Ithad been suggested, lie added, that the 1 new award was probably the reason for less employment, but the real cause undoubtedly' was that most of the big buildings in course of erection in the city had now been completed. A good many people had come to Auckland attracted, by the work offering in connection witli the Exhibition, and had helped to swell tti • present list of unemployed.

Mr T. Long, secretary- of the Hotel and Restaurants Employees' Union, said that there were members of the Union out of work who made their inquiries by telephone. It was customary at this time of the year, when, the tourists' season slackened off, to find a- good many hotel and boardinghouse employees coming from Rotorua and elsewhere to Auckland, but this fact alone could not account for the great number of unemployed in his Union at the. present time. Other Union secretaries had similar stories to tell. It was" ststed that many members of the General Laborers' Union were out of employment, and that- in the timber trade the mills were reducing hands all through the province.