DEPRESSION IN AUSTRALIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 97, 27 March 1885, Page 2

DEPRESSION IN AUSTRALIA.

I Eepebring to the depression which at present e -cists m various branches offt-stde m: iA-delaide,; the 'Sonth Australian Advertiser of tlie 26 ih Eebniary remaVks; — '"'There' are but few im^ortiiht trades which have -not severely suffered, and on all sides we receive. accounts of reduced establish\nvehts, idle machinery, and operatois out of work. The weekly wage- sheets of most large business firms have beon considerably cut down. In some cases ihe reduction lias amounted to as i' much as 60 per cent., and there are other stftablishnaents where it is even greater. The result of . this .decreased activity m almost all brunches of business has necessarily been great distress among' the working classes. We have already shown at whjlt a rapid rate South Austria is losing her population through the continued exodus, to the oilier colonies; and when we learn that several trade societies have actual ly- been assisting men to leave the colony ' for Melbourne, it may b 3 readily- imagined that the state of the labor -maiket hero has not been painted m too gloomy colors. The movement to find employment for the men who are : out of -work was not started a whit iV»o soon. No doubv can be felt as to the reality of the distress that exists arcriuid us, nor will anyone acquainted with: the real circumstances of the case deny that ifc is the bounden duty of the- Government to make provision, as' far ay possible, for the employment of those who have been thrown out of work."