THE UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2252, 25 July 1908, Page 2

THE UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM.

iDEAIOXiSTRATION IN CHRISTCHURCH. [Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, July 24. An unemployed demonstration took place to-day along several-of the city streets and- a canvass was made for food on behalf of the unemployed 1 , but there was not a very generous response. At a preliminary meeting, a .resolution was passed' objecting to the importation of American labor to coal the American fleet, •as it' was criminal in view of the number of unemployed in the Dominion. Another-: resolution was passed deciding to Jake a house for the homeless unemployed. Tlio Labor Department to-day arranged for 27 men to leave, for Broken River to-morrow, and ' the Inspector of Factories desired it ,to be dearly stated that no man who had applied at the bureau had- been refused on account of any physical disability, in tact no person who had applied had been refused work.

The city surveyor stated that the men on work under tlio City Council were getting on very well, and were evidently trying to do . their best-. He had visited some of the gangs, and had seen them at. work. The City Council wished it widely known that the work being given by. the Council was intended for bona fide necessitous residents, within the city’s boundaries, and it was thought that if it became, known in the country districts that’ the Council was providing work at 8s per day, that the country unemployed would flock to the city, and it as to prevent that state of affaire that it is desired that the widest possible publicity should; be given to the fact that the assistance being rendered, by the Council is confined to the unemployed' living within the city’s boundaries'.

At a spepial meeting of the AVaimakariri River Board to-day the chairman was authorised to take on some of the unemployed on the works of the Board, and arrangements were accordingly made for six men to be put on at 8s per day. The Otira correspondent of “Truth” wires that the strike at the tunnel works is at an end, and that the men are returning to work to-day.