THE UNEMPLOYED AT CHEISTCHURCH.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2259, 14 June 1880, Page 3

THE UNEMPLOYED AT CHEISTCHURCH.

Saturday evening’s Star publishes a statement showing (lie casli in hand of the various Hoad Hoards in the Canterbury Provincial District on the Ist January, 1880, and calls upon those bodies to provide work, within their districts, for the unemployed, so as to do away with the scandal of having a soup kitchen in our midst. The following are the principal amounts shown in the statement ; Ashlej-, lioad Board, £10,450 ; Courtnay, £17,751 ; Ellesmere, £16,690 ; Geraldine £32,507 ; Kowai, £12,177 ; Lake Coleridge, £13,040 ; Mount Cook, £25,502 ; Eakaia, £20,191 ; South Enkaia, £12,150; Springs. £13,510 ; Temnka, £13,807 ; AVaipara, £19,035 ; Mount Peel, £39,008. TI io return also shows that the great hulk of these funds has been derived from subsides, and not from taxation. Three hundred and ton persons wore supplied with soup and bread on Friday and Saturday at the Benevolent Society’s depot. A meeting of the unemployed and others interested was held, according to announcement, in the Oddfellows’ Hall, on Saturday evening, at half-past seven o’clock. Mr Gapes took the chair, being supported by members of the committee on the platform. The hall was tilled. The following resolutions were carried; — “That this meeting is of opinion that the unemployed will be compelled to petition and seek assistance from the United States and other governments to assist the working classes of the colony to better their condition, if our Government after a final appeal, fail to at once adopt measures which will give employment to the working classes by granting a system of bonuses to pi’otcct such work as can be performed in this country.” “That a fund be raised for charitable aid to meet the immediate wants of those whose needs could not be met by the already existing charitable institutions.”