MANY STILLS SEEKING JOBS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 810, 2 November 1929, Page 1

MANY STILLS SEEKING JOBS

Auckland Unions Disappointed PROMISE TO UNEMPLOYED REPRESENTATIVES of trade unions in tliis city are no! pleased with the pronouncement that the Government’s promises had been fulfilled. Some of them aver that the situation has hardly eased at all, and others state definitely that there are still 300 labourers available at a moment’s notice in Auckland alone. While The Sun man was inquiring this morning there was a steady trickle of applicants for casual jobs.

"The Government seems to have forgotten that Auckland is a part of •jie Dominion,” said Mr. E. J. Phelan, Secretary of the Timber Workers' Union, when commenting upon Mr. ?orbes's announcement of the Dominion unemployment figures, because •here are in Auckland today something like 1,000 men who are willing and mxious to work. "A great many of these men are juite fit, and although not perhaps classed as Al. will earn a living at anything to which they turn their lands. I think the position is hardly improved from what it was two months ago. To say that the Government has cleared up the unemployment situation is nothing short of ridiculous.

“The Government seems to have beeu wrongly advised as to the actual position in some towns of New Zealand. A great many of the jobs in ■bis city have finished, and the men ire falling back on to the market as fast as they are given work. “There is only one way of settling the whole question, and that Is by the systematic and economic encouragement of local Industries. Until that is done, there will always be men with tightened belts wandering about the streets.” 300 LABOURERS The viewpoint of the general labourers, who comprise the class of men most widely affected, was conveyed by their secretary, Mr. J. Sutherland, who declared that he could put his finger upon 300 men at any moment —men who are willing to work, but who cannot get it. Commenting upon the reluctance of the men to go into the country, Mr. Sutherland expressed the general >pinion of trade union secretaries in hat many men were unable even to keep their heads above water when they were out on country jobs. “I know of men who, after spending two months on Government jobs in the countryhe said, “came back to the city more in debt than when they left, and far worse off economically, because they had used ail their good clothes, and had no cash with which to buy more. "One of the greatest factors against men going to the country is that many of them do not get paid until they hive been on the job for a month, and some of them fortnightly. Then their fare and the money for utensils must come from their first wages, leaving them practically nothing for their wives, who have been starving here ever since the husbands left the city. BIG JOBS FINISHED “What men would leave their wives ind families in such circumstances? It is human nature to wait in the city aad hope for something to turn up, when many of these men are leaving 'heir wives to almost certain starvation.” Mr. Sutherland, too, mentioned the stoppage of many big jobs in the city, which had thrown many men out of work for Indefinite periods. As soon as they were absorbed at one end of he city, they were thrown out at the other. He agreed with a suggestion which *me from the South that the office at the General Labourers should be the •ffleial bureau for the unemployed. "Everyone who becomes unemployed,” he said, “becomes a general ibourer, and if the register were made we, we would get at the truth as to ao whole unemployment situation. "• would handle everything, and ®ow exactly where the men could be Placed within the city, and co-operate with the Government in their schemes.” MEN STILL SEEKING WORK Mr. T. Bioodworth. who is secretary j * the Carpenters’ Union, waved his ; in the direction of a small ; -®Ployment-seeklng queue, when he j Jas asked to comment upon Mr. j •ofbes' message. This is evidence that the situation J lot cleaned up,” he said. “I still | i e then coming in here —men who 1 registered with the Government, ] 5“ with the union, but who are not j j •'« placed. . I know the position is not as bad j « was two months ago, but a ! , at deal of that improvement has; due to the seasonal improvement j i lt ° Ur trade. The Government has j ' a few of our men to the rail- 1 ~k ' workshops, but to say that the 9 Position is cleared up is simply 4 °t correct.” I °t those who were waiting at 3d "ion offices for something to turn •stated that they had been conrlv ent ca Uers at the Government » bureau, but had received scant * o fir i<m to their inquiries for 'tilin' °ne man declared he had been iidn ,* or three months, and so far i, tt °t been able to secure more than w hours' work.

t-k W. Forbes’s statement it of ,?, ploymeilt Is published on page this Issue.

HIGH relief wages

COMMENT by visitor c ause of unemployment

v largely a Zealand’s unemployment r r Vv. r ®5P er one - is the opinion of * Kerr, who came to the charge of the last party of

Flock House boys. He Is leaving shortly for England, via Sydney. State, relief system is in danger of becoming a permanent feature, Mr. Kerr believes. The relief wage is higher than that the farmers can afford to pay. Thus the ranks of the unemployed are swelled by those who have left the farms to find more lucrative employment on relief works. The drift to the cities is as noticeable as it was in Canada, where all the sons of many families have left the soil for city desks. Many are content to live on a pittance and hope in a New York garret. Mr. Kerr is a representative of the Young Men’s Christian Associations of Great Britain and Ireland, which selects the best type of settlers for the various dominions and helps them in every way, serving the Empire by filling the empty spaces with men who will become good and hard-working citizens. Last year the organisation sent 400 boys and 600 men to Canada, where they are assisted by the United Church of Canada. By far the majority of the assisted ssengers make a success on the land.

There is plenty of scope in the Dominion for such settlers, Mr. Iverr says, but land and houses are too expensive to attract the man of moderate income.

“PRETTY HOT”

MEN’S VIEW OF RELIEF METHODS LONG DISTANCES TO TRAVEL From Our Own Correspondent HAMILTON, Friday. Strong exception to the remarks made by local officials of the Labour Department and others that the Hamilton unemployed would not accept work outside their home town, was taken by several of the men concerned in speaking to a reporter today. The only relief work offering at present, they said, was at the National Park, 123 miles down the line. There men were paid on piece-work. An experienced, capable workman was penalised through this system by being put to work with a gang of inexperienced men, who debarred him from earning fair remuneration for his labours. How could a man with a family keep two homes going at 9s a day? “I have been living in Hamilton for the last 18 years," one said, “and the way they talk you would think they are offering us jobs just out of town.” After what Sir Joseph Ward had said about finding work for men as near home as possible this system of sending Auckland men to work near Hamilton and offering Hamilton men work near Auckland was, in his opinion, pretty “hot.” He had taken work which was represented to be near Papakura but which was found to be 19 miles from there. He also had to pay 28s a week for keep while at the camp and with the surplus was expected to keep a wife and four children. Only at relief works the men were paid monthly. How were wives and families to exist for the first four weeks?

Humours had been current, stated another, that the Government was offering 14s a day on relief and making an allowance of £1 a week for keep. If such were the case there would scarcely be a single man in Hamilton on the unemployed list tomorrow. The most serious feature, from their point of view, was that once having refused relief work when offered, they could not apply for relief work on any other job, whether it be under Government or local body control.