EMPLOYMENT IN TIMARU

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13655, 25 July 1908, Page 6

EMPLOYMENT IN TIMARU

{To the Editor of the "Tiniaru Herald. ) Sir—Over the noin de plume of "One -Who Knows" a letter appears m your i*>u* of July 25. Now shrewd me* generally hesitate before committing tuemielvea; they like to probe the matter to the core and weigh the result of their investigation. Not so this modern Ananias" who is car-marked for future reference by the workers of Tiniaru. beveral workers interviewed the Labour Bureau, which only required 20 men for the Broken River railway, and has bad 17 on the books for that work for some time. Enquiries were also made at your office for "One Who Knows," as men were available for any work affenng, but the burlv frame of "'One Who Knows was not" visible to the naked eye. The assertion that ab the present moment there are more working people out of work in Timaru than for several years past is a fact. Many homes are on the verge of semistarvation; no work and nothing to get food with. The work that is available at any time of the year is only casual and the wages earned upon the wharf, stores and freezing works have not been sufficient to ->ay off arrears to the grocer, etc. Head over heels in debt, every winter; I have pictured in plain words (perhaps too plain} the position of the working men, but nevertheless it is true. For a man with a family that is out of debt, t&ere are fifty in debt, facts .which can be ascertained from the books of any tradesman. God help us (to quote "One Who Knows") if ever the cloven hoof of his sort have a say in any Government in this Dominion, and upon the face of the hallucination which is weighing heavily upon "One Who Knows" lies the fact that with the advent of hard times in Timaru (and they are here) he will try other fields of fortune where the public will take him more kindly for a while. I venture to say that " One Who Knows" never had a hand in. the carving of thw country, and I can safely say that the average working man of tL'- town has more abilrtv mentally and physically than he has. Take work for gorse grubbers at 3Cs a week and find themselves, in the face of the evidence at the farm labourers* dispute where they contended it takes 16 shillings a week to provide food for one man; a married man after paying for food has fourteen shillings left to provide for his home. Put rent at 10 shrillings, coal and wood 4 shillings, and now say a family of three (which i do not think would be above the average) at a cost of 8 shillings each per week, and wife 12 shillings. This leaves a man in debt to the extent of 26 shillings per week. Try it, old boy, it would do you good, you bogus pioneer; Carve out a home for yourself upon what you can save and the Chow wul envy youJ One job men? The men who arc out of work here can turn their hand to almost anything. A lot of them are tradesmen of some sort who have not been able to find employment at the expiration of their time, being slung upon the labour market to earn a cruat as best they could. This fact also remains that the Dominion must provide and feed the young Dominionite properly instead of importing at our expense men and women from Britain and throwing them on the labour market, or as I should say to swell the ranks of the unemployed. Is it not a fact that Timaru, with the help of the Mayor and business and commission people, has been posed before the people of this Dominion of Great Britain as- the moat wonderful place in existence with the result that commission agents have boomed Timaru? It does not take much capital to make a commission agent, only a born confidence. A man heed not even be a tradesman. The freezing works close down at the end of the month, and already 30 men have been put off after barely earning tucker for the last, sis weeks. In conclusion let me inform Mr whatever you are " One Who Knows" that he should use his influence to .help to tide over till better times, but perhaps be ie in the -same street and wants it as bad as we do. —l am e'e, JOHN COOPER, Labourer.

Sir, —In reply to the heavy guns -which have been hurled against me in this morning's "Herald" I beg to be excused from entering into a newspaper controversey, as I nave neither the time nor tho inclination so to do. The question afc issue is— Is there a genuine unemployed problem existing in Thnaru? After perusal of the concoctions of this morning, I come to the conclusion that comment is' unnecessary. However, there are a few points I wish to make clear, and I will take the letters seriatim. To the first I'may state thab I myself hare been on the' Government works—and never earned less tihan 9s' per dayl If what "Labour"' says is true about No. 1 and 2 gang of workers only earning half the amount of No. .3 and 4,' o fwhat use "they would be to a private employer? I think I know the worker well enough; to know that the worker will leave as small a margin for the employer as it is possible for him to do. If the writer is not aware of the fact he ought to be; that tie Government compel private employers to pay a living wage, and they see that every employee who works, and does nob loaf gets a living wage. I have this information, not theoretical ,but have gained it in the school of practical experience on the Government railway works. With respect to No. 2 letter, which says: " I presume ho would prefer expend-

ing his bounty on married men." Every single man with a grain of manhood and decency ouglit to be ashamed of himself, to be numbered amongst- the so-called unemployed. With regard to the gentlemen s offer of 30s per -week and find themselves, are the wages any less than were offered and willingly accepted in the 80's , wb.cn men were glad to sell their laboub at. 3s 4d per dav and rind themselves? Depend upon it with the cycle of time comes depression, and with the present cloudy outlook in the financial markets of the world, the workers may yet be only too glad to sell their labour for what it will bring in the market. Evidently my friend has not studied the economic side of supply and demand! Probably the writer is not aware of the hard times cf 1887? And he is also not aware, that the most prosperous farmers and commercial men ot tne present day are those who were *f*Bj£ turn their hands to any kind of work offering at the market price that they could command for their labour. With respect, to the gentleman's name who so kindly offered to supply labour I am not at liberty to give the name. However, i mavSe iU £ general, and the agent in question has had no enquiries for it. As I was offered only to the S?™**?™: ployed, and none have offered to go; the Snlr conclusion is, that there are no gennine unemployed, notwithstanding the Mayor's telegram to the Premier. ReoDectinz Mr McKenzie's letter, it J£% « that the trio *™"£j£ coterie-with a determination to gne one who Knows" fits, us it U l° d io-v or a repition of the other two, and wortbv of the contempt I give it m pa* Xit over. None of them have proved ttafr case. Now let them disprove oiujtwocases of i,any that I AM n«ne. A certain influential tradesman of th* town had the misfortune to lose a pony- a * went on the wharf amongst a crowd of men. and offered 20s for two men to go and burv the same, but not one or th«n would take the job. Another tradesman (a carrier) only on Tuesday wanted sonio men to load furniture, and although he went to the wharf to get men, they all refused to take on the work. No one in the face of these two incidents would have the audacity to affirm or believe that there was an unemployed problem in Timaru, except the barrel agitators, who wish to pose as embryo M.P.s, and at the same time lire on the gullibility of their comrades. I venture to state if the colonial worker had less conceit, and more energy, it would be of mutual benefit to himself and the Dominion in which he acts a most important part; for in the majority of cases the worker has no initiation, and does not care a brass farthing who sinks if he swims, and until this erroneous idea is eliminated from the mind of the worker he will rind rocks ahead that will be much worse to negotiate than the molehills that they are tumbling over at the present time, —I am, etc, ONE WHO KNOWS. DOING GOOD WORK. Per Press Association. CHBISTUHURCH, July 24. An unemployed demonstration took place to-day along several of the city streets and a canvass was made for food on behalf of the unemployed but there was not a very generous response. At a preliminary meeting a resolution was passed objecting to the importation of American labour to coal the American fleet as criminal in view of the number of unemployed in the dominion. Another resolution was passed deciding to take a house for homeless unemployed. At the Labour Department to-day 27 men arranged to leave for Broken River to-morrow. The Inspector of Factories desired it to be clearly stated that no man who had applied at the bureau had been refused on account of any physical disability; in fact no person who had applied had "been refused work. The city surveyor slated thati the men on work under the City Council were getting on very well and were evidently trying to do their best. He had visited some of the gangs and seen them at work. The City Council wished it to be widely known that the work being given by the Council was intended for bona- fide necessitous residents within the rily's boundaries. It was thought) that if ■it "became known in the country districts that the Council was providing work at 8s a day that the country unemployed would ilock to the city and it is to prevent that state of affairs that the widest possible publicity should be given to the fact that the assistance being rendered by the Council is confined to uneniployt-d living witliin :the city boundaries. At a special meeting of the Waima•kariri River. Board to-day the chairman was authorised to take on some of the unemployed on the works of the Board. Arrangements were accordingly made for sis men to be put on aii 8s per day.