EMPLOYMENT IN TIMARU

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13653, 23 July 1908, Page 6

EMPLOYMENT IN TIMARU

To the Editor of the " Timaru Herald." Sir,—l do not consider there is one atom of truth respecting a genuine unemployed problem affecting ilus town. True, there are. many scores of men who may' be said to bo temporarily unemployed, about this time- of year—which always cccurs, but even these get casual labour. And would you betive it, casual labour appeals to most of them, more than a permanent billet. Our shipping and our other insular industries require the services from tane to time of these casuals. It may be quit* true that -some -weeks they may make very lit.le, but the majority of weeks they arc earning exceptionally good wages lor the class ot ■work demanded from them- Surely those easily earning their £1 rxr day, during the great majority of mouths during the year, ought not to whine and "wring their Lands because of a fortnight's slack time. Th» cost of house rents is a bit stiff, but the cost of living generally, is not abnormally high, and 1 am sure the average time worked, and the average wages earned by the wharf workeis and otheis, cannot be equalled in any other part of the Dominion. . I will prove to you that there i 6 ao need whatever for such an outcry regarding the unemployed problem. In the first place the genuine unemployed problem is non-existent in Tiniarn, work to no slacker now, than at any other previous time during the winter. It is an exaggeration, & moral wrong, and a dire insult to the town itself, to assert cither directly or indirectly that men with their wives and families are starving because they have no work to go to. I know for a fact that previous to the wet broken weather employers could not get men to mas their farms, stations, stores, etc. Even now there is- work to go to for those who really want work. There are places both for married couples and single farm Lands, and can't get them, and 1 have it on good authority that a sheep farmer in the Mackenzie Country told one of the agents her, that if there were such a thiug as an unemployed problem existing, that lie would find work' for one mouth or more for 6 men as gonse-grubbers,etc., at 30s per week and find themselves, and another employer requires hands. I am informed that they tome »jjd have a look at a certain board, and like the young man in the parable turn away, and say no, they are not having any thank you! Again the Government is willing to absorb all the unemployed here, and elsewhere on tbe Government llailway>, especially so when it is near the election which is a time-honoured and sacred dodge of the present Government to find plenty of work just prior to an election, even if they kick them oat the first week after. I venture to affirm that n»t 5 per tent, of tbe fo-called unemployed will avail themselves of the opportunity. The great majority of th».-se mtn arc one job men and can d<» nothing else, neilb- r have they any inclination to learn. It w a bktsing their fathers lived before them to get tlw country into ship shape before their arrival on the i-ccik*. God help us if these npontcrs and one-job men had the country to carve out now. There would then be truly starvation and misery on every hand. The main point at. i.«*tic c*enw to me to be a dual grievance with the Government, and not really the. want of manual labour. whi<-h any one can »ee who will read whaK they had to j.ay ot the Mayor. With regard to their suggestion (re drainage works), a good many of tb*ee men have tried this clah* of work but find thrir hand* too hoft, and the work too heavy for their yialwart frame". ;:nd some only lasted one day, and in one or two caws only an hour or two. I may repeat again, jn >-<>n<-li%iioii that there ii> plenty of w>.rk in Tinnrti for si'l 1 !•>•»« who are willing and able to turn their bands ti» any kind of unskilled labour.— I am, ct<\,

In reply t«» Iho tel-gram yent to |lk> Premier on Monday by th« Mayor. Mr J. f'raicie. forwardinir the r» solution pajo*i at, ;•• ncetiug of unemploved. Sir Joseph Ward staled : " ! h.nvu n sole en qniries and am advised that the ti>»:il number of men who have applied fur work at the labour Department in Timaru during the pa-t month was 17. The Government ?« willing to put. all men desirous of obtaining employment at railway construction works and if they will send their names to the Labour Agent ariangemtnts will be made accordingly.

l'er I'rcss Association. CHKI.STCHL'BCH, July 22. Another unemployed meeting was held tli!3 afternoon, when the following tesolution was cariied unanimously:—"That this meeting of unemployed of Christchurch will forward without delay reports of the unemployed meetings being held throughout the dominion, to the press of Great Britain, so that" intbudiug emigrants call see for themselves that there is more labour in the douiinion than can be absorbed, and strongly advise them not, to be misled by ih« glowing reports of God's Own Country."