THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6089, 28 January 1898, Page 4

THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS.

VISIT TO OXFOBD. On Wednesday night the Hon W. HallJones, Minister of Public Works, arrived at Oxford, accompanied by Messrs E. Moore and R. Meredith, members of the House of Eepresentatives, and Mr Horneman, private secretary. On his arrival the Minister attended a meeting of the local committee ;fdrmed for the relief of the sufferers by the recent bush fires. At half-past eight o'clock yesterday morning he drove out to visit the scenes of thefires, accompanied by Mr Moore and two members of the committee, the Eev E. J. Murray (secretary) and Mr Westou, of Woodside. During the morning the party visited the country devastated by the fires near Oxford, and in the afternoon went to view that in the neighbourhood of Birch Hill. The Minister made a donation of .£2O to the fund for the relief of the sufferers, and left for Christchurch by the train at 4.16 p.m. DEPUTATION OF BOOTMAKEES. The deputation, appointed by the Christclrurch. branch of the Bootmakers' Union to wait on the Minister of Public Works in reference to the case of unemployed members of the bootmaking trade, interterviewed him at the railway station on his return from Oxford yesterday evening. The deputation was introduced by Mr T. E. Taylor, M.fl^R., who stated that fifty bootmakers, with altogether two hundred persons dependent on them, were out of employment in Christchurch. This fact had been brought about by the recent introduction of machinery into the boot manufacturing trade, and the position, serious as it was, would become aggravated when the winter came on. j Mr Darlow, President of the Branch Union, corroborated the remarks of Mr : Taylor, and gave a statement showing the ■wages earned by 150 men in the bootmaking trade during two months of last year. The average for one month was 451 12s 2d a man per week and for tho other £1 14s per man per week. This showed j tho very depressed condition into which the earnings of men in the trade had fallen. He had, he said, no suggestion to make as to what they would like the Government to do, but they wished to, 1 ■know what the Government could do in the way of finding some kind of work which would eventually be of permanent ; benefit to them. The men were willing and able to work, and were quite ready to take up outdoor labour of an unskilled \ class. It would be no good to give them anything -which-would only last for a short time. Mr T. E. Taylor pointed out that the position was not merely local, bat that machinery was driving operatives out of work in all the centres of the colony. He ! ■wished to know whether the conditions of i settling on the land might be modified in some way to meet the cases of these men. In reply to the Minister, Mr Darlow said that possibly forty of the fifty unemployed bootmakers in Christchurch would be able to take up pick and shovel work, but, of course, there were a certain number physically incapable of such work. Mr Williams, a member of the deputation, spoke in support of the statements of Messrs Taylor and Darlow. The Hon W. Hall- Jones said that Mr W. W. Tanner and himself had talked over the matter, and he thought the best solution of the difficulty at present would be the putting of the men on to railway and road work. He pointed out that the Government could not guarantee, permanent work, because there ■were many others requiring assistance, and Government would have to give relief turn and turn about, so as to be fair to all. He suggested that the men willing to take up work of the kind he had referred to should give in their names to Mr Lomas at the office of the Labour Bureau, and he could guarantee employment at that work for twenty- He promised to bring the matter raised by the deputation before his colleagues. The interview then terminated, and the Minister left by the 7.45 • p.m. train for Lyttelton, whence he sailed for Wellington by the s.s. Penguin.