“NOT CHIEF MAGISTRATE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 725, 26 July 1929, Page 16

“NOT CHIEF MAGISTRATE”

MR. BAILDON'S BRIGHT TURN WITH CR. CAMPBELL “CHIEF CITIZEN ANYWAY” “You are the chief magistrate of the City and ought to convene a meeting of trade union secretaries, representatives of the Hospital Board and employers, to make a survey of unemployment in Auckland,” said Cr. Grey Campbell to the Mayor, Mr. G. Baildon, at last evening’s meeting of the City Council, called to discuss unemployment relief. Mr. Baildon disowned the title. £JR. CAMPBELL, was criticising two schemes for finding work for labourers and complained that nothing was being done for office girls, sales people, painters, carpenters and other skilled workers. "There is a good deal of unemployment among these people, and we are making no effort to provide for them,” the councillor challenged. “Business men are receiving daily applications from ‘light’ workers, who are at their wits’ end.” He believed the council could find jobs in painting and repairing its property. Nobody knew the serious state of the labour market in Auckland, he said. Cr. M. J. Coyle: The Government knows. Cr. Campbell: No, it does not. He said that for all the council knew it might be providing work for labourers from Hamilton. Then came the reference to the chief magistracy. “I am nothing of the sort,” said Mr. Baildon, and added amid laughter: “You can get that right out of your head.” Cr. Campbell: Chief citizen, then. "We have already tried conferences,” the Mayor said in defending the council’s policy. “We met the Chamber of Commerce and appealed to the general public on the lines you suggest. We reminded them that it was a good time to get their houses painted and so on, but the response was very poor. You won’t get a business man to take on a clerk for a week or two. In any case there will be a large number of skilled men on the proposed works. “As it is the City has done its duty to the unemployed,” Mr. Baildon declared. “Anyway, is it the City’s obligation to find work for all these unemployed ?”