SAN FRANCISCO.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8222, 28 August 1906, Page 7

SAN FRANCISCO.

PROSPECTS OF THE FUTURE. LABOUR AND INCREASED WAGES. (Per Sonoma at Auckland.) SAN FRANCISCO, August 2. The activities of San Frano'soo continue to astonish all beholders. People of near-by States have visited the scene of "disaster and recuperation," as the popular phrase has it just now, and of late tourists from even as far away as the shores of the Atlantic have been coming to view the ruins and to look for opportunities for investment and occupation in greater San Francisco. San Francisco banks did an aggregate business during the week ending July 26th greater than that of all other important Pacific coast cities combined. This is particularly gratifying to enthusiastic San Franciscans in view of the fact that Seattle and some other cities have attempted to make capital out of her great misfortune, and had assumed that the city by the Golden Gate was irretrievably injured. Judging by all appearanoes the city has cast its swaddlng clothes, and it is to develop rapidly into a great oity. At the Merchants' Association banquet held on July 24th in the ruined diningioom of the onue beautiful St. Francis Hotel, the speakers were jubilant as to the future rather than mournful as to recent events. The spectacle was unusual in that most of the men, prominent though they were in affairs of the oity, were unable to appear in evening clothes sinoe fire had claimed such garments, nnd there had been little t>me for suoh trivialtieß as ordering more. IJlayor Sohmitz one of the speakers made a plea for the labouring man, tnat important part of the body politic which is striking right and left and otherwise hindering the rebuilding of the oity as much as possible. The Mayor excused the demand -for higher and higher waaes on the ground that rente and-other necessary expenses bad advanced, and it was only natural the workers should advance prices also. As a matter of fact San Francisco and all California is facing a labour problem of grave proportions. The '- Western Paoifio Railroad, new rushing worK on the roadbed between Balt Lake and San Francisco, needs at least seven thousand more labourers than it has been able to seoure. The railroad has sold bonds to the extent of one hndred and ten million dollars and has spent millions here since the Are. Other roads, including the Street Railways uf San Franicao require labourers, and so do construction companies for the removal of debris and repairs and rebuilding generally. Wages have been advanced in all directions. Ranchers are having muah difficulty in all the Paoifio States in securing labour for harvesting mops. A dispatch from Albany, New York, dated July 29tb, gives data seoured by tne StateSurerintendent of Insuranoe regarding losses lo insurance companies in the San Francisco fire. All joint stock fire and international and marine insurance companies transacting business in New Yurk State were called on for a sworn statement of their losses in California New York State companies, 47 in number, show an actual amount of loss 23,138,090 dels; foreign companies 32 in number actual loss 57,701,856 dol«; returns from other joint fire and marine insurance companies 84 in number show the actual amount of loss 51,983,111 dols. This gives the actual amount of loss as 132,823,067 dols to iDßurance companies.