The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1908. NEW SOUTH WALES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXII, Issue 12452, 30 April 1908, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1908. NEW SOUTH WALES.

New South Wales newspapers contain gloomy reports of that State, resultant upon the ever-threatening drought and a fall in metals. The Director of Labour, reporting on the condition of the labour market generally, says it is not so good as it was a month or two ago, and at p~esent barely merits the description, of "fair." In many places in the southern and south-western portions of the State, as well as in a few other districts, droughty conditions still prevail, and are being accentuated as time goes on. Sharp falls in the prices of metals have closed many small shops and low-grade propositions, and, in the case of schtelite and antimony, have rendered prospecting no longer profitable. Many miners and others" aro consequeatly unemployed. Speaking generally, he says the prospects for the winter arc not at present iTight. Broke.i Hill is in a very Lad condition, there being hundreds of men out of work, and conn-;-quertly there is much distress, and there are similar evidences at other mining centres Cobar is goitmg short of water, and many men will be thrown oul of employment unless rain falls very soon. In the city and (Suburbs masters show little improvement as r:»r as the skilled trades are concerned, but they are rad'cally worse in the unskilled labour section. There has been a considerable influx into the city of men who have lost their employment in Iho country districts. Also there have been many arrivals from oversea, most of them Leing unskilled labourers. The winter outlook for them is at present very poor. On 51sE March 435 men, mosfiy labourers, were on the Director's books as unemployed and eligible for work. Commenting on the prospects, the Sydney Telegraph anticipates a set-back, resulting in a dull winter and spring. It points out that the fall in metals has cut down the profits <>i mining seriously and checked the output and the only way to meet that depression is to reduce expenditure, which means a reduction in the wages paid or a large addition to the number of idle hands. There is a growing slackness in the coal trade. Much of the New South Wales coal .is for export, and the Herald expects that trade to be affected by Japanese competition. There is much depression in Japan at the present time, and already the Japanese have, by underbidding New South Wales exporters, uiad«f considerable inroads upon their coal trade- with the Eastern Archipelago and Singapore, and it looks like spreading to the American coast. The expansion, too, even in local industries may be checked. Metal mining involves a large consumption of fuel, and so does railway traffic, and though in New South Wales the railways have shown surprising elasticity, doubts arise as to a continuance of that condition of affairs. Such troubles never appear to come singly, and the depression in wool affecte all the States. Just now there is even some difficulty in disposing of last year's wool clip, but while that difficulty will pass away, the Herald thinks it is evident that a lower range of values must be submitted to, involving a surrender of some millions sterling in the value of the clip ; and wool is most of all important in that State. The wheat harvest and crops generally of New South Wales and

Victoria have been deficient, and that again serves to restrict the buying powers. Upon the top of all this New South Wales has had a series of labour troubles, which have also proved disheartening to trade and the cause of loss of wages. The exports from that State during the first two months of this year show a falling off ol ,£2,500,000, *,here was a further reduction March, and this falling off bids far to continue, at any rate, for months to conn 1 . The Herald says it will do no good to shut their eyes to these conditions, and counsels both employers and employees to meet them.