SURPLUS LABOUR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5498, 25 February 1896, Page 3

SURPLUS LABOUR.

PUBLIC MEETING. A public meeting was held this" morning in the Temperance Hall in response to a circular requesting the local M.H.R.'s to '- meet a deputation of the Surplus Labour :. , League. His Worship the Mayor was ' voted to the chair, and Messrs J. Joyce, G. W. Russell, G. J. Smith, W. W. Collins, ," C. Lewis and W. W. Tanner, M.H.R.'s, and '• Mr E. M. Taylor were present. Mr Powell, on behalf of the deputation, - stated that, owing to a misunderstanding, fj the impression had got about that the meeting was to be a public one. It was, therefore, decided that the whole of the men who were waiting outside should be admitted. These, to the number of about ) forty-five, then entered. The Mayor then [ invited the men to state the reasons for , which the meeting had been called. Mr Powell said that they wished the ■ members and the Mayor to send a letter to ' the Government, requesting that work might be found for the number of men who were present. There -were three times the numberunemployedinthe neighbourhoodof ' Christchurch, and to prevent theannual winter's cry they thought it would be wiser if the local legislators were directed to draw up a letter representing to the Government the ; necessity of doing something at once. Mr G. J. Smith said he understood fr6m the circular he had received that they were there to hear the views and suggestions of the labour deputation, with a view ; to representing these to the Government, and seeing what could be done. He knew that the state of the labour market was bad, but he wished to have the' information officially, and also to have the benefit; of the deputation's opinions. ' V Mr Collins said, his .circular was of a similar: import. He quite agreed with Mr Powell's remarks as to the necessity of something being done before the winter^ Mr, Powell thought that the. members were asking too much. ' They were sent to Wellington to legislate for the benefit of the' people, and now they were asking that the. men should formulate a scheme for them. Mr Smith explained that they only wished to hear the deputation's views before taking action themselves. He expected to be in Wellington on Friday, and if he could be of any assistance to them he would be only too delighted. Mr Powell said one scheme that had been suggested was that as there were a lot of plantations and waste areas by the side of the railway lines, both north and south, if a small hut were placed there for a man, and he were given an acre or two of land, and had to look after a mile or two at a small percentage, a lot of old men would be taken off the labour market at ■ little expense to the Government. Such a man might have a small remuneration of say 5s a week. Another suggestion was that a light railway should be built, and that all the bush timber now being burnt should be converted into firewood and brought to the towns. Another, and to his mind the most important suggestion, was that men should be placed upon four or five acres of land and have assistance for twelve months. By this means the question could be settled once and for all. The present system of sending men to work for a little time, and then putting them off again, was only tampering. Already there were a great many wolves at the door, and he implored the members to do something in the matter. A day of reckoning was coming, and, therefore, they were fearless in asking that their cause should be taken up. They did not care to go again to last year's winter's work ; .' that charitable business was galling. (Mr Joyce: Hear, hear.) ",y. Mr Joyce said that it would be necessai*y in appealing to the Government to have a definite statement showing, approximately, the number of men out of employment, their circumstances and the number of people dependent upon them. They could then say "These are men who must havo work." Then what, about the Labour Bureau? Voices: It's a failure, always has been; men are tired of sending up. their names; : Several men then proceeded to give their experiences of Government relief work. The Mayor pointed out tTjiat t^ey were not there for the purpose of sitting in judgment on theJGovernment, or on the people who had had charge. <of the Labour Bureau ;' they were there* to,. devise some means of coping with the present difficulty. One person suggested that the- Government should push on the -West Coast railway (Mr Joyce : - Hear, Hear), and thus absorb the surplus labour* . In answer to Mr Smith, , Mr Powell said that if an advertisement were put in the papers for labourers there would be over 500 applications. Mr Collins here quoted the returns from the Christchurch Labour Bureau for the past four weeks. They showed that the total number of applications for work for the week ending Feb. 1 had been 6, who had been out of work between them 56 weeks, and had 22 persons dependent upon them. The corresponding figures for the weeks ending Feb. 8, .15 and 21 were 12 applicationsi 46 weeks, 52 persons dependent; 35 applications, 143 weeks, 138 persons, dependent; 24 applications, 123 .weeks, 94 persons dependent. He admitted that this was no estimate of the unemployed to go by, as : persons did hot apply there except when they heard that work was to be obtained. Mr Smith reminded those present that though as local members they could submit Bchemes to the Government, the controlling power was at Wellington. A Voice : ." But the Premier told us he was our servant." One of the men stated that the City Council had at present 7000 yards of stone which only employed nine men with a stone crusher, instead of about sixty who might be employed to break it by hand; Another, person said he knew someone whq; would guarantee to take 5000 men" and place them on a large block of Government land in various kinds of employment. The scheme would. pay, and the unemployed difficulty . would be settled in a .week. Asked who was to supply the funds, he replied" the. Government." (A voice* "They did it for the bank.") Another industry which would employ a large amount of surplus labour was distilling the tan out of birch bark. Mr Tanner here called attention to the fact that so far they had done nothing. The meeting was simply a repetition of what had been going on for years. He thought it useless for them to consider any i of the schemes which had been suggested, as they were impracticable, and asked the Government to vote large sums of money to be placed in the hands of irresponsible people to play ducks and drakes with. The only permanent solution was that pressure should be brought to bear upon Mr John M'Kenzie, Minister for Lands. He had been given large powers, i and had £250,000 annually to purchase 1 land ; and he (Mr Tanner) must admit that little of the money had been used in the manner it had been intended it shoidd when it was voted. At present little had been done as regarded . the people in the towns — he said nothing of i those in the country. With regard to the i small and close cultivation to be carried on around towns, the Government had done i practically nothing, and in this he con- . sidered their inaction in, the highest degree i reprehensible. Mr Joyce *. Well, where are we now ? Mr Lewis *. We have arrived at this con- . elusion : there are 500 men out of work. ; Mr Tanner : That has not been proved. The Mayor thought the best plan would ; be to adjourn, in order that the infori mation required could be supplied. Mr Collins thought it would be well for • the local members to at once represent to I the Government that there were already a l large number of unemployed in the city, ; and that if nothing were done before l the winter the difficulty would then be , too large for the Government to grapple ; with. (Applause.) He would suggest ; that such, a letter should be drawn up and . sent straight away. If they were to • wait three weeks for the information, as suggested, valuable time would bo wasted. He did not think l that any of the suggested schemes would r mean a cure of the evil. I Mr Smith could only say that on two

previous occasion* the' matter- had been brought under the notice of t&a Government" before the winter started, and the reply had been that it inrtst be attended . to by the 1 local bodies.- He did not think ! the local bodies this year could assist, as i their overdrafts were too heavy.- Them.- . formation with regard to' the number at present out of employment should be available in twenty-four hours. If a representation to the Government were to be worth anything, it must be backed up by stern facts. The Mayor said the suggestion for the City Council to have the stone broken by manual labour, and thus pay twice as much as at present, was out of the question, as the Council was in oflice for the purpose of spending the ratepayers' money to the' best advantage. He wished to, say; that so far as the City Council was concerned, it. recognised no responsibility whatever to provide for the unemployed of the city. During the last year or two it had done a great deal — a great deal more than it ought to have done. The City Council was there to spend the ratepayers' money in performing certain functions, and if the people in this colony were to be provided with work it must be by the Government, and not by the local bodies.. He wished those present — including the members — and the Government to understand that so far as his Council was concerned, it did not intend to be placed in the same position as last year. It was not fair to the Council, and it was not fair to those seeking work. If the men had any rights in the matter, they must get them from .the State, and not from the .local bodies,' who had their own special functions, to perform. The citizens were perfectly prepared to -pay.'" the. amount levied upon, them for charitable 'aid,, and alwoys-'Had done- so,: and if- the . amount •granted for charitable aid was insufficient, then more would have -.to be levied; but to ask th^m to find funds for relief works every winter was . altogether out of the' 'question. He thought it was greatly to the unemployed's detriment that they were constantly seeing at such meetings, as the present so many of the same faces. It seemed to him a most extraordinary tiling that so many people should apparently be always unable to obtain work, while others were always working. If at such meetings there were more fresh faces instead of so many familiar ones, it would, in his opinion, give a more genuine ring to the whole business. Mr Powell then moved, and Mr Mill seconded, — " That the local M.H.R/s and the Mayor be asked to represent to the Government the number of unemployed about the town, and the necessity of taking some steps in the matter at once." Mr Russell said that his reason for remaining silent had been that a considerable portion of his speech to his constituents to-night would be devoted to the labour problem. He intended to go fully into the matter, and thought he would show that Canterbury had not been getting fair treatment in respect to expenditure from the Government. Mr Powell's motion was then agreed to, an adjournment being made until Thursday to enable the required information to be forthcoming.