Unemployment in Christchurch.

Maoriland Worker, Volume I, Issue 1, 15 September 1910, Page 8

Unemployment in Christchurch.

interview with a City Worker.

With regard to the amount of unemployment and consequent distress in Christchurch this winter, some information was given to a representative of this journal by Mrs L. R. Wilson, who has been interested in various cases needing relief. Mrs Wilson stated that in her opinion there was really not much less distress in Christchurch—and Christchurch, no doubt, was typical—this winter than last winter, although possibly there had not been quite so much unemployment. The wet weather this year was more continuous, and people last year got so far behind that they were unable to "catch up" with their debts during the summer months. This winter there had been over 500 applications for relief under the Coal and Blanket Fund, according to the report of that committee, and; of course there were numbers of poor people who would not apply to such a fund. The number of applicants was higher than in any previous year ; more coal and more blankets were distributed, and more people given second grants than ever before. " I do> not think," continued Mrj» Wilson, " that the public has any idea or the extent to which permanent unemployment or partial unemployment prevails in New Zealand, and prevails all the year round. I am constantly told by the women with whom I chat in their houses that the position is very much the same at all times of the year, except when the husband has an occasional run of luck and gets, say, two months' regular work. In the summer things seem better, mainly because less food and clothing and firing are required. The children can do without boots and stockings, and often can gather a little dry wood, and more vegetables are obtainable. " My point is that the problem is a standing problem, and must be dealt with as such. It is not fair to throw all the burden on the relief committees. They do what they can, but they realise that their efforts are often only a drop in the bucket. Certainly it is better to afford relief temporarily than not at all ; but if the giving or temporary relief is made the excuse to shirk the whole problem, then it is worse than useless. " I suppose that no one will contend that a man can maintain a wife and family in decency and comfort for less than 50s per week. Obviously, then, the man needs to have full employment all the year round or somebody has to go short, and where the ' going short lasts for a long period, then application is made to the municipal or other authorities for relief. The question then becomes a social problem. When the fathers have been in receipt of assistance, the children grow accustomed to it, and look for it themselves in later years. The independence is undermined from childhood. Often the children in such homes cannot be properly trained for their future life-work. They adopt odd callings, such as that of message boys, and earn a few shillings per week till they are seventeen or eighteen years of age, and then it is considered too late to apprentice them to a trade, and so they join the ranks of unskilled labour. " All this shows that at present we are only tinkering with the problem by means of temporary relief, and that until we attack it properly in a genuine, earnest and scientific spirit, no real and lasting solution will be found.."