THE UNEMPLOYED. SINGLE MEN SEEKING WORK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 34

THE UNEMPLOYED. SINGLE MEN SEEKING WORK.

ADVICE BY THE HON. R. M'KENZIE. On the 4th inst. Mr Sidey, M.P., introduced to the Minister a deputation of 25 single men out of employment — men, he said, who had no dependents upon them. The Labour Department .had rendered good' service in . finding work for married men. and single men wih 'dependents upon them. The men forming the present deputation, however, had no one depending on them, and they were the representatives of a con- j siderable number of others in the same j position, who had difficulty in finding work. Mr S. Boreham said he was not a single man with no dependents. He was a married man with some single men dependent upon him just now. It was a most dangerous factor to the community to have a number of single men out of employment. Only that morning there was a regrettable case in the Police Court which, he Delievcd, would not have com© up there if the young man had been in work. The members of the deputation had honest parents, and were honest themselves; they were willing to take work if it was offering-- -A.t present there were considerably over 200 single men out of work in Dunedin. This crisis in the labour market had fallen on them unawares, and it was only to be expected, perhaps, that they would take action in a direction that was not laudable. The Minister said if there were 200 men out of work they had not applied to £he I»abour> Department. _, Mr Bcueham said possibly not, but he had a. list of the names and addresses of 174 single men. He contended that it was the right of the single men to get a share of the public works when married men could not b© got- If some of the single men were placed out of town greater opportunities would preienc themselves for the married men. The fact that' a man who applied for work was asked whether he was single or married had a tendency to make men tell untruths. In some cases single men had said they were married, and had taken women of questionable character to lire with them on the works. The Minister said that was an extreme case, which had no general application. Such cases might cccur under any circumstance* Mr Boreham said two cases of the kind occurred on the Lawrence-Roxburgh works, and he knew of another case. He trusted the Minister would recognise it was a danger to society, as well as a great disadvantage to the young fellows to be out of employment, and he hoped the Minister would see his way to give Mr he Cr-an instructions to take on, at any rate, a few of the men. Tho Labour Department deserved credit for the energy • it had shown in the last four or five weeks j — since he crisis had arisen. Most of these ! young fellows had been in work since the j Liberal Government had been in power — it had been a " panacea " to them — and they were now being thrown on the streets without a penny for a cigarette or a sixpence for a football' match. There were many works the Government might put vn hand — rabbit-trapping, clearing land of weeds, etc. In_ that way the Government, he believed, could find work for 150 out of th> 200 unemployed. Mr Barr also pleaded the case of the> unemployed single men. This unemployed question, he said, was one that was agitating the mind 3of many thinkers, and so far they were only groping among the branches ; they were not at the root of the trouble at all. If men were unemployed it was a national loss. At the same time, too much coddling was not a good thing, end if a Government was going to spoon feed its people it would be trading on dangerous ground. But, all the same, there was hardly any of them wno, in the course of their lives, were not the better of a little kindly advice and timely aid at the ! right period. At present only palliatives ■ were being used, and he did not see why (. the single men should not get a share of i what was going. I Mr Smith «iid he wished to put the J position in a very few words. Would the j Minister find work for 124 single men, or I would he show them the way to get work? Mr Elliott said he had been in the Catlin-s district. There was room for more men there, if not on the railway, on the roads. The Minister said the roads were under , the control of the County Council. ; Mr Elliott added that the men were willing to take rabbit-trapping, grubbing, or other work. The Minister, in reply, said he was sorry to meet the men under adverse circumstances. He trusted their troubles would not be prolonged. There had been unemployed in all the centres for a time, but he was glad to say the trouble had eased off to some extent. In the case of Danedin, tho official figures were very different from those laid before him by the deputation. If there were 200 men out < f work hero they were certainly not looking to ths Government for employment. Last week there were 76 names on the book.-, of the Labour Department in Dunedin :-. this week there were 73 names. Out of the latter number 28 were married men J anj 45 single. Pie was prepared to gi\o ! work to 60 out of the 73 on the following j S day or on Frida> . — (Applause.) Of courhC, j if the labour agents found there were jmon;the applicants married men with . c ix or I four childi-en, it would be his duly to proj \ido for tho-o ca*^ first. Ho would be ' ■very plea 4 cd to see e\ery one of them in j work, but they would recognise it was imi possible for tho Government to carry an enormous number of men al! througn tho ! year or through •every winter. At present ' thero were 9000 or 10,000 men on Government work 3 , v.lvch was a bad state of J things for the country. When he knew , Mr Bcreham ~s a yowiig man no one looked . to the Government for a day's work, and the people wera better off a3 a community than they were now. Mr Elliott had referred to rabbiting. "When he was in South ; Canterbury on the previous day he was I told that as many men as wished to go ', there could earn ICs a day. Let them catch .20. /abbits daily, and they would get 6d a skin. That was the information given to him. But he did net expect them to go rabbiting:. He would give instruc-' tions for 30 of the men to be sent to the C'atlin'a Ri\cv works, married men with three or more cf a family to have preference. He would aloo inquire if there were othei works for the remainder of the men, and when ho was travelling through the soua;r\, if lie hc\>:d oi an\ pi we where

there was work he would let Mr Le Cren know, so ihat he might send some of them to it. It bad been said it was dangerous to the community to have so many men idle. He was certain, however, no men in Dunedin had come to the stage when they considered it necessary to commit crime to maintain themselves. Men would not become criminals until their trouble became very acute, and the trouble had not reached anything like an acute stage here. He would like to express the opinion that the men would find it necessary in their own interest to obtain some permanent, occupation. Let them go on the land and settle down, or create some permanent occupation for themselves, because it was absolutely impossible for the Government to carry an army of 10,000 men on its works in the future. When the North Island Main Trunk line was in progress the Government employed a great number of men. A large number was employed at present in Otago on five sections of railway. Those works would be finished before next year, and would release 2000 men, and there were no other works for them to go upon The hands of a Minister were, of course, tied by the amount of money that Parliament granted, and at present the Government was employing as many men on various works as the funds at its disposal TvouJd allow. In reply to Mr Smith, the Minister 6aid it was the duty of the Government to assist the married men first. Although in June last the Government put 800 men, on co-operative works, there were 600 less men on these works to-day than there were at that time, so that, as a matter of fact, the men were leaving faster than they were being put on. Ho would also inquire whether -there was any bush-felling lo which single men might be sent in the North Island. The Minister was accorded a hearty round of applause for his favourable reply and his courteous reception of the deputation, and a vote of thanks was also given to Mr Sidey. AUCKLAND, August 8. About 200 unemployed registered their names at the local office of the Labour Department during the past week. Forty men were provided with work by tho department during the week, 10 being sent to the Stratford-Ongareuhe railway and the remainder to private employment. POSITION IN CANTERBURY. CHRISTCHURCH, August 4 The engineer of the Lyttelton Harbour Board reported at to-day's meeting that the board having decided to go on with the reclamation works, he had pushed on with the preliminary works connected therewith, in order to find work for the unemployed, and now had 62 men on the temporary pay-sheets. Mr Darcy, secretary to a number of unions, who has just returned from a tour in South Canterbury, states that there are a very large number of men unemployed in that district. The boarding-houses are all carrying their full quota of lodgers looking for something to do. August 9. A party of 12 men was despatched by the Labour Department this morning to work on the Cass-BeaJey section of the Midland railway. Work in connection with the contracts recently let by, the Sehvyn County Council for the clearing of several reserves of gorse and wattle has been commenced. Some men from the city have gone on these contracts, but it is stated that they did not belong to the unemployed class. There have been registered to date at the City Council the names of 307 men who are out of work, and of this number 151 have got employment on relief works. Of 38 men whose names appeared on the latest posted list, 16 have taken work, and the others may have got work elsewhere. At a meeting of the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council on Saturday night the following reesolution was carried :—: — " That this council is of opinion that the question of unemployment can only be solved through industry being organised on scientific lines, having as a basis production for use instead of profit, and that this can only be brought about by the instruments of production and exchange being in the hands of the State. The present commercial system is in our opinion the real cause of the preeent unemployment, with its attendant evils. A conference of representatives of the Industrial Association and of the Trades and Laoour Council set up to consider the solution of the unemployed question held another meeting to-night, when the representatives of the Trades and Labour Council brought up the council 'ti resolution on the subject. They expressed the opinion that it would only be tinkering with the subject to confine the discussion to the effect of the encouragement of local industries on the unemployment question. The association representatives stated that the association was a nonpolitical body, and to discuss the matter irom a political standpoint would be outside the policy of tiie association. It was resolved that the conference could not see its way to discuss the subject of unemployment except from a political .standpoint. It further agreed to ask the association to instruft its delegates on the Trades Council's resolution. The representatives of ths council expressed th" hope that the association would >\iden the scope of the order of reference ?n that the subject could be gone nto thoroughly.