BRITAIN'S UNEMPLOYED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9154, 30 July 1908, Page 5

BRITAIN'S UNEMPLOYED.

UNEMPLOYED ACT RENEWED.

A THREAT.

Received July 2£)/ 8.20 a.m. LONDON, July 28. The Workmen's Unemployed Act has been renewed until the Poor Law Commission issues its report. This was decided on after Mr John Burns, President of the Local Government Board, had threatened that the £200.000 a year for the relief of the unemployed would lapse if the Act expired.

A marked growth of unemployment in England in March was indicated by the April Board of "Trade Labour Gazette.'' The percentage of unemployed in the 268 trade unions, with a net membership of 639,716, making returns was no fewer than 6.9, as compared with 3.6 at the end of March, 1907. In other words, among the aristocracy of labour, which the trade unionists form, 43,853 men were without work. The increase in Junemployment during the preceding few months was as follows:—August, 1907, 4.0; September, 1907, 4.6; October, 1907, 4.7; November, 1907, 5.0; December, 1907, 6.1; January, 1908, 6.2; February, 1908, 6.4; March, 1908, 6.9. The increase in the number of unemployed in February and March was the more remarkable and unwelcome, as usually in those months employment was improving, and it should be best in March, April and May. The fact that it was so bad indicated extreme depression in trade, when all allowance had been made for the unhappy labour disputes in the north. Conclusions' of the Central Unemployed Body in the annual report issued on May 16th indicate the nfeed of a national barometer of unemployment. Among thern are: The averagevalue of the men given work was threefourths of ordinary unskilled labour. The phyiscal condition was in many cases below par. Londoners can be fitted for the land, but only some of those trained are suited for small holdings. The women's work department showed the danger of women becoming the wage-earners and men loafers. Caution is needed in sending men to Canada. Some 50 of 800 traced are doing badly. Experience of the past three years' work under the Unemployed Act "shows conclusively that it is impossible to deal adequately with unemployment by local authorities. The question | should be dealt with nationally. A , State department should organise labour exchanges to discover where work exists, and also to find out as far ahead as possible when and where bad trade might be coming,"