SLUMP IN AUCKLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 298, 9 May 1913, Page 7

SLUMP IN AUCKLAND.

DOLEFUL REPORTS. PROSPECTS FOR WINTER FAR FROM BRIGHT. MANY TRADESMEN OUT OF WORK. Auckland, May 0. There has been an undoubted slackening of industrial activity in Auckland for some weeks, and the prospects of uiir skilled and of many classes of skilled labor during the winter are far from bright. This applies particularly to those engaged in the milling trades, and although several big jobs are on hand the amount of work available is much below that offering a year ago. UNEMPLOYED FARM HANDS. Mr. Newton, officer in charge of the local office of the Labor Department, said that while the position in Auckland would not justify anyone creating a panic, be certainly would not advise anyone to come in from outside in the expectation of getting work here at present. There were perhaps no more men out of work than was to be expected at this time of the year, but the supply was considerably greater than the. demand, and this condition of affairs would be intensified as the season progressed. What made it worse was the fact that so many farmers were unable to keep their hands employed all the year round, and that always threw a good deal of surplus labor on the city market during the winter months. "We have as many as, or even more than, we can provide for," Mr. Newton summed up, "and men would be ill-ad-vised to come to Auckland just now from Wellington or elsewhere." CARPENTERS SEEKING WORK. The secretaries of the various trades unions have the same experience to relate as that of the officer in charge of the Labor Department. Mr. Bamfield, of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, informed a reporter that there were on his books the names of twenty-six men who wanted work, while sixty or. seventy others who arc out have not troubled to sign the book. He bad already written south to say that the market here was overstocked; and that the influx of men, quite wrongly under the impression that the | Exhibition was providing lots of work for carpenters, should be stopped in the interests of themselves. DRIVERS AND TAILORS IDLE. Mr. Davis, of the Drivers' Union, re- . ported a scarcity of work in his, department. There always is a big number of men out of work in winter, he explained, owing to the slackening of. the works by local bodies and others who have usually a great deal of carting to do.' These men naturally flock to town, and as many of them as are fortunate, are absorbed by the waterside workers or the general laborers. With regard to tailors', Mr. Bullen reported that the position was really serious. More men were being encouraged to come to Auckland when many of those here already had not been able to average four days' work a week for months past. " GROCERS' ASSISTANTS are a drug on the market," said Mr. Rosser. "A week or two ago an Auek- ' land firm advertised for an assistant, and thirty-nine had answered the advertisement before 0 o'clock in the morning. They are flocking'into Auek- ( land and from all parts of the Dominion, and some from Australia, to say nothing of those coming from Home, at-, tracted by the immigration boom." j