DISTRESS AT TAIHAPE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 458, 25 May 1909, Page 3

DISTRESS AT TAIHAPE.

PLIGHT OF SAWMILL HANDS. “ Will you do something for me in the name of God ? I have a dying child and others starving.” This was a part of a letter received by Mr Jennings, M. P., Jfrom a Main Trunk sawmill hand out of employment. The writer had previously asked for road work, and Mr- Jennings said he had already tried unsuccessfully to get him something to do. “ We are not on the verge of starvation, but we are starving in earnest,” wrote the same worker’s wife. We have got to beg a bit of fat to make a lamp to struggle through the dark to get the poor sick child whatever we can catch for her. It is true that we are isolated to perish. I wish you could only see our position. My husband has gone from one to the other begging to work for food for me and the children, but he did not succeed.”

Evidence before the Timber Commission on Saturday went to show that there was a good deal of unemployment among the sawmill workers in the Taihape district.. Charles Hutton, who had previously given evidence at Taihape as a contractor, said he had since been asked by a meeting of sawmill workers to give evidence for them. There were about 100 workmen of that class out of work in His district, many ot them being married men. There was no other work available. To Mr Field: The men were satisfied with their wages at the mills in the Taihape district. They got 10s. or ns. a day. The cost of living was high. They paid last summer is. yd. a pound for butter, gd. for bread, and 13s. 6d, for a bag of sugar. The men did not get so much from their high wages as some people thought, and they worked up to their knees in mud.

Mr'EH, after examining the witness as to the cost of living at Taihape, admitted that necessaries appeared to be much more expensive than in the cities. Mr Jennings; And clothes for the children afe made out of sugar bags ? Witness; Yes plenty of them. Mr Ell: We see that in the cities too, among large families.