SIDNEY DEPRESSED

Hokitika Guardian, 31 December 1920, Page 3

SIDNEY DEPRESSED

BAD INDUSTRIAL OUTLOOK. MANY IMPORTANT FACTORIES ! CLOSING DOWN. EXTRAORDINARY WEATHER, j WELLINGTON, December 28. Mr W. B. Millier (Assistant Secretary to the Marine Department) returned to AVellington by the 'Sydney boajjt/ yesterday from n five weeks’ holiday visit to Australia. Interviewed by a “Times” representative last evening, Mr Millier said that the industrial conditions in Sydney where he spent the greater part of 'tlie time, were pretty bad. There was a lot of unskilled labour unemployed over there, and the outlook for unskilled men was not at all promising. . DEPRESSING SITUATION. There was, however, plenty of build ing going on—especially house-building —and there was thus ample employment for skilled tradesmen in that line. But in some other trades the situation was very depressing. Ther". was, for instance, a considerable number of hoot factories, and so on, closed down for the time being, owing to the- o being too much stock on hand; ani all though, of course, sorts of rumours were flying about—though, of course, I could not say how much truth there was in them—that some of the factories were not going to open again.

“Sydney seen to-day,” continued Mr Millier, “was not the Sydney I knew it two years ago. The city seems to be commencing to experience a serious depression and the indications are that they are in for a very bad time over there. J did not get to any of the other big centres, 'but we went on a bit of a tour up country to the Blue Mountains, etc., which we enjoyed very, much indeed.

EIGHT-DAY THUNDERSTORM. “We were in tSydnev during that violent thunderstorm,” continued Mr Millier, “ which lasted .for eight day without a break, raining in torrents, and blowing liaird all the time. They talk about ‘Windy Wellington,’ but I never experienced anything like it here. It was blowing a 70-mile gale for days at Sydney Heads, and at Newcastle- the velocity of the wind was 77 miles ail hour. Sydney people said that they had not known such a storm for many years. In fact, they went back as far as 1876 and 1883 for anything like a parallel to it. In the 1876 gale a big vessel went down outside Sydney Heads with the loss of many lives. I had a photograph of the pilot steamer taken from the Manly ferry boat, and it showed the waves running mountains high even inside the Heads, so that hardly anything could Ire seen of the pilot vessel. STEAMERS 'IN THE GALE, “The Cooma, 48 houfrs overdue from Brisbane, had a tremendous fight with the gale; though, b ein S a ve, 'y Food sea boat, she was quite all right; and the Port Augusta .was held up for 2] days outside. Even big boats like the Orvieto (550 ft. long and bigger than tho Niagara) could not look at the Sydney Heads while the gale was at its height. At times tho rain came down in absolute sheets. I can toll you T have a warm spot in my heart for New Zealand after my experiences over there. There is no such train nor wind here. And the heat, too! It was 97 degrees in the shade at 9 a.m., the day we landed, and there was a very high per centage of humidity in the atmosphere as well, which made it very moist and uncomfortable.

"I had five weeks’ holiday altogether. and feel very much better for it. We had an excellent trip across to New Zealand, except that it was very slow, owing to the had coal. There was, too. a shortage in the stewards’ department because of the labour trouble on the other side. But I must say that the stewards we had did very good work under the circumstances.”