SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1894. HOW THE GOVERNMENT MIGHT RELIEVE THE UNEMPLOYED.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4715, 10 May 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1894. HOW THE GOVERNMENT MIGHT RELIEVE THE UNEMPLOYED.

As a temporary expedite t to absorb the unemployed labour during the coming winter we would suggest ihat the Government might arrange for) say five hundred cords ol firewood to bo cut every week somewhere near the railway line in this district, and pio vide for cheap haulage to Wellington. In the first place the raw material would cost nothing, because settlers are only too glad to got the fallon lop' on their properties cleared away. In the second, largo quantities of firewood could be cheaply trucked to the Empire City, and there a few unemployed might be encaged to subdivide the ordinary four feet lengths into convenient eize3 for the Wellington household, There is already a considerable consumption of firewood in the Empire City, which might be considerably augmented if it were brought into town at a price which could compete with coal. We do not see why the Government could not arrange to do this, having in view the fac l , that,; e: oepting railway freight, every sixpence paid for fire", wood would be available for labour only. Of course, firewood would displace coal to 'a certain extent, but from the labour point of view the substitution of a homo produot like wood for a foreign produot like coal would be attended by an immeasurable advantage. We believe householders in Wellington do prefer wood to coal if they can get it at a fair price, as it is cleaner and makes a moie cheerTul fire. If four feet lengths 1 could be delivered in Wellington at about ten shillings a oord, and thene subdivided into shorter lengths and delivered totheoonsumeratabout fifteen shillings a cord, coal to a large extent would be superseded by wood in tbe Wellington market.' It iB unsatisfactory to think that tens of thousands : of tons of good timber aie destioyed 1 every month in this district that could J be utilised in the Empire City, All ( that iB needed to take the supply t j , the market is labour and a-cheap | railway freight. With waste labour i on all Bides, and a convenient railway 1 service thtre should be no difficulty in solving an economical problem in the 1 best interests of labour, and of the » community. f