The Star. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 1893.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4676, 21 June 1893, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 1893.

The Unemployed. The Btriking difference between the treatment accorded by the present Government to men engaged in work to which they were sent through the agency of the Labour Bureau, and that meted out in days gone by to the unemployed, is exemplified by the complaints made by a party of men who waited on the Minister for Labour yesterday. They complained that, on their journey from Springfield to work at the Taipo, they were packed in waggons like cheep in a railway truck j that they had to Bleep anywhere they could ; that they were not able to earn more on one contract than 7s a day, and were only able to send 16a 8d per week each home to their families. They had to pay a guinea apiece as a fare, and the charge does not seem unreasonable, considering that the journey by waggon occupied three days. In the old days, as "bit Reeves pointed out, they would have had to walk and carry their swags. He did not mince matters with the grumblers, but went through the list of complaints categorically, and showed that they had very little foundation. One, only, appeared to have reasonable grounds. '. It appeared that the men might have done more work, and consequently earned more ■ money, had they been differently classified. 1 On this point the Minister promised that ' the necessary amendment should be made. ! The result of the interview is decidedly { t ac ory. It showed that the treatment i

of the men is, on the whole, what it should * be; that tho interests of the public are * safeguarded by due care being exercised ° in the supervision of the work, that there 3 are no really serious causes for the men to complain, and that the Minister is alive to i the importance of remedying aught that ' is not as it »bould be. '