THE UNEMPLOYED

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 304, 20 June 1912, Page 3

THE UNEMPLOYED

POSITION AT CHRISTCHURCII. Cliristchuvch, June 17. i The unemployment question, as it is at present, cannot be called very serious. The secretaries of the Labor unions who 1 were questioned by a reporter thia meriting stated that recently work at a few 1 large jobs about the city had been completed, and so far no new contracts of any size had been started. The secretary of the General Laborers' Union said that in his estimation from one hundred to one liundred and twenty unskilled laborers were idle in Christchurch. Portions of the tramway construction work had been finished, >and tenders were only' being called for the next portion, 'Consequently the men 'that, looked to.these' work# fpr. .employment Jiad at present nothing to do. Most of them were married men, and they were not in a position to go into the country andl look for work. The fifty.men affected by. the cessation of the Heatlicote County Council's contract, were for the most part elderly.' For them' and their wives and children tlie position was really serious. There • were many laborers in Christchurch at the present time whose employment was only casual. Even then the wet weather so interfered with operations that some of them did not earn more than 24s a week. To pay rent and keep a wife and two or three children on such a pittance seemed impossible, but there were scores of unskilled laborers who often were faced with sucli' a ! task. There should lie some system under which men would be guaranteed permanent work so that in the worst season of the year their wives and children should not be compelled to feel the pinch of poverty.