Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCT. 6th, 1920.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 October 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCT. 6th, 1920.

UNEMPLOYMENT AT HOMEThere is great unemployment in Britain and some of the farseeing Laboi leaders are predicting one of the wors winters for employment is just ahead. Unemployment is making itself felt ir many of the staple trades of the conn try. The position of the shipping indus try is so acute that the Governmen finds it impossible to secure purchaser for 250 ships taken over from the Ger manSf From the ship-building centre . the trouble is spreading.to the inlant iron and steel centres such as Slieffielc where ships are turned out ready fo assembling in the yards on the Clydi and the Tyne. In the cotton and wool ' lon trades the position is regarded a threatening. Lancashire towns are ex •mling the annual week’s holiday t two weeks—a process of spreading th work which has been adopted through out tlie year by the boot manufactur ers and workmen of Northampton am Leicester. .Building and construction al employment, in spite of the grea demand for houses, is also declining High wages are driving contractors ii this country as they did in the Unite States, to the use of labour savin machinery. To-day foundations ar dug concrete laid, and sewer tranche cut by machines which do the wor of 100 men at one-tenth the cost. Rea sons for the rise of unemployment ar many, and vary according to the trade affected. In shipbuilding the foreigi buyer has been refusing to place order throughout the year because the con tract price is no longer fixed but de pendent upon the problematic cost o material and wages. In the boot am shoe trades the high cost of raw ma terial is maintained while the retai cost due to over-production of ehe«] grades is falling. The makers wouli rather close down than face a curtail loss due to these causes. Their outpu is also affected by the fact that From- 1 buyers cannot pay tho price demand ed in a depreciated currency. The en gineering and allied trades are affect ed by the great -influx of new ma c-hinery bought and made during th war, which turns put .quantities oi tools and small parts at-a prodigiou rate. An American screw-cutting ma chine will, for example, turn out j finished screw at one-tenth the pric< asked by the screw-making firms win are still using pre-war machinery, Oi tho top of all the troubles caused hi lack of orders comes the demand fron the Government for the payment oi heavy taxes.on profits made during th' war period, most of which have already been sunk in the extension of work/ Finns are everywhere refusing to tak< contracts which involve heavy risks thus leaving still less for the payment of taxation. In the tyre trade t’Tiemploymont has been caused by the fljod of imported tyres from America. In the motor-car trade reduced prices foi imported cars threaten a “slump”.and the industry will soon be asking whether it is wise to risk capital in manufacturing cars at tb 0 present cost of material and labour. Mr Hogge asked the Premier in the House of Commons, according to a London paper, what steps the Government were taking to deal with the situation. The Premier replied that the new Unemployment Insurance Act was the greatest effort to cope with unemployment in this or any other country, and other methods were also being considered. The foregoing resume of the position at Home indicates the stringency of things, and a general slump will accentuate the difficulties. High prices must be affected by this swing of the Labor pendulum, but a drop will have its financial bearing, also on commerce. Tn any case serious difficulties will have to lie faced.