THE LABOUR MARKET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9169, 18 August 1908, Page 5

THE LABOUR MARKET.

SCARCITY IN SOME AVENtJES. A Labour Department official intormed a "Post" representative, vtstsi'iiay. that there has been a decided inv.ovement in the labour market during the past week or two. Private contractors are now applying for men in fairly large numbers. Several men were sent away to the Manawatu district this morning by the Labour Department, and on Saturday morning a batch of half-a-dozen was despatched, both lots being to order of private contractors.

A fairly good demand for farm hands is setting in, mostly from the Taranaki district. An apparently good opening for a young man has been made by a farmer in that province, who offered to teach the whole dairy'farming business to any likely-looking young man who might be sent up by the department, besides giving an undertaking to eventually provide him with a well-stocked farm to look after. A young man who said he was the son of a farmer was sent up by. the department, but his time on the farm was short. A letter from the farmer to the department said that the person sent had been a disappointment. "His only thought was comfort, luxury and a piano. He represented himdelf as a farmer's son to vour department? but up here he failed to do anything but enjoy himself." The department has made enquiries which have secured for the farmer another man, and he leaves for Taranaki this week. A marked decrease is apparent in the number of applications for employment made to the department. The average has gone down from about ninety per day to about twentyfive per day, and in some lines of labour there is an insufficient supply offering. The department can place at least sixty men at road work throughout the Dominion on account of the Roads Department. For this work, though, a sturdy and hardy class is essential, men who are used to outdoor life and who can adapt themselves to hard conditions. Not many of this class are offering tneir services local'y, and at present the department is finding difficulty in securing some forty of tlum io fill positions in the Wellington and Taranaki province. A considerable number of marri.-d couples are being enquired for by farmers, and just at present the department has an opening for a whole family which would be willing to milk on shares about 140 cows.

A larger number of labourers than usual has been kept in employment by the City Council this winter on works which are paid for out of revenue. In this way the surplus of labourers in Wellington has been kept less formidable than it might have been. There are several indications that the general position in regard to labourers in Wellington is easier now than it was a month ago, and it is anticipated, that the trouble will entirely disappear after a month or two, when the settled weather of summer induces the City Council to expedite the drainage works which have already been started, in terms of the authority given some months ago, and out cl' the fund derived from the special loan floated in London last month.