AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18322, 12 August 1921, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

UNEMPLOYED PROBLEMS. POSITION BECOMING SERIOUS. Prsas Association— By Telegraph—Copyright, SYDNEY, August 11. (Received Aug. 11, at 8.10 p.m.) Unemployment is growing more prevalent in Sydney and other industrial centres. The trouble has been increased by the Federal Government discharging large numbers from the Cockatoo Dock, the Lithgow Small Arms Factory, and other employment, and by the Governments of the various States economising through the Public Works and other channels. Similarly private employers, owing to the slackness of business and the constant demands for higher wages with shorter _ hours, are reducing expenses and shortening hands wherever possible. All the States are more or less affected.

Unemployed demonstrations are taking place in the various cities, and the papers teem with appeals to supulement -the already generous Government aid for the distressed crowds of workless and allegedly starving women and children. In Sydney the high rents are forcing families in the industrial suburbs to pack like sardines. THE MARRIAGE RATE. SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S RECORD. ADELAIDE, August 11. (ReceFved Aug. 11, at 8.10 p.m.) South Australia's marriage rate in 1920 showed a great improvement, being 10.33 per thousand, the highest recorded in Australia.

PRICE OF BUTTER. SYDNEY, August 11. (Received August 11, at 10.45 p.m.) The Profiteering Committee has increased the retail price of butter by three halfpence per pound. The Farmers’ Conference adopted a resolution denouncing the fixation of the prices of farmers’ products.