THE GARDENS RELIEF WORK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16570, 1 November 1921, Page 7

THE GARDENS RELIEF WORK.

FIFTY-EIGHT MEN ENCAGED.

At the present time there are fiftyeight men employed on the relief works at the Public Gardens, another eighteen having been token on yesterday and to-day. The majority of the men are working well, and are performing useful work in clearing up unsightly patches, trimming paths and so forth. Some of the men are trimming up tho path under the trees in Rolies ton Avenue. Another squad is employed on the path which follows the bend of the river on the Gardens side. It is intended to make considerable improvements to this path and to build up or cut away the bank of the rivei so as to have a uniform Blope all round. One difficulty that the foreman at the Gardens is experiencing is to find sufficient light work for all the men requiring it. Men suffering from war disabilities and men who have not been used to hard manual labour are not able to perform heavy work, and the supply of light work such aB weeding plots or raking up rubbish is strictly limited.

The wage bill for this week will amount to about £232, as much as was paid out during the first three weeks that the scheme was m operation. The Unemployment Committee has decided that the twenty men who were first employed at the Gardens shall be pfiit off at the end of this week to moke room for another twenty in more necessitous circumstances. Probably the total number will be brought up to sixty, and with this number the money at present in hand will not last more than two or three weeks after this week. About 400 subscription lists were sent out to local business firms, but the majority have not yet been returned. The committee is anxious that these lists should be returned as soon as possible so that it may know the exact position of the fund. .

Mr W. E. Headley, secretary of the Christchurch Returned Soldiers’ Association, says that the unemployment position in Christchurch has "rown worse. This was due to the fact that a good many large firms had dismissed men lately. Most of the firms had kept the dismissed men on as long as possible, even when there was not sufficient work for them to do, but now they were finding it impossible to continue in this way. The majority of firms in Christchurch had done their best to relieve the unemployment situation but they had not received a lead from the Government. The Government had failed to realise the seriousness of the situation. He was brought intimately in contact with it and some very distressing cases of families who wero practically destitute had been brought under his notice. He was constantly receiving letters from women, whose husbands had been out of work for a lengthy period, asking if he knew of any work offering. Yesterday he received a letter from a woman in Ashburton whose husband had been, out of work for months. The rent was owing, and there were also other debts, but there was hardly a penny in the house He i 9 hopeful that the unemployment position will not grow any worse and that with the advent of summer there will bo more work offering in the country.