UNEMPLOYMENT

Southland Times, Issue 19897, 16 June 1926, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT

NUMBER INCREASING RELIEF DEPOT OPENED IN CHRISTCHURCH APPEAL FOR FOOD. (Special to the Times.) Christchurch, June 15. The number of unemployed is increasing. The position has not changed to any great extent, but a few more men have registered and more are expected in the near future. A number of members of the Labourers’ Union cannot find work, and the difficulty is being swelled by the inclusion of freezing workers who register as labourers when unemployed. Mr Worrall, secretary of the ’General Labourers’ Union, expressed the opinion that the ranks may be swelled by 200 in a fortnight. A relief depot for the reception and distribution of food and other necessaries for cases of urgent relief was opened in the Trades'Hall to-day, and it was reported that applications had been received from two families, in one of which were six dependents and in the other two dependents. In both these cases there was no food or coal in the house. So far the appeal for food met with very little response. “Men have come in here and we have given them bread,” said one of the men at the depot. “We have only bread to give them and they have gone out eating it.” It is possible that the closing down of sections of the Millerton mine will increase unemployment in Christchurch. The sealing up of certain sections of the mine in order to extinguish a fire has thrown a number of men out of work, and it is possible that some will come to Christchurch in search of employment.