THE UNEMPLOYED.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2561, 23 July 1909, Page 5

THE UNEMPLOYED.

POSITION AT NAPIER IMPROVED

[Pick Press Association.] NAPIER, July 22. The condition of the labor market in Napier has been considerably relieved during the past few days, owing to a number of men having been found temporary employment, and a further improvement is expected with, the advent of warmer weather.

DEMONSTRATION IN CHRIST-

CHOuuJI

CHRISTCHURcH, July 22

The unemployed were much in evidence this morning. A procession, varying in number at different periods from thirty to sixty or seventy, paraded the streets, seeking the local members fo Parliament in order to lay -.before them their needs. Mr. T. E. Taylor, M.P., proved to be the most easily found and After seeing him the crowd proceeded to the house of Mr. T. H. Davey, M.P., only to find that he wa6 out The Mayor was then visited at the City Council Chambers. - The deputation asked Mr. Taylor to approach the Government with the view of finding employment for the workless. Mr. Taylor telegraphed to the Acting-Premier, the Hon. James Carroll, urging him to have put in hand at once the erection of a new Customhouse in this city or to subsidise the Summit road or some other work of utility. The Mayor’s room was not large enough to accommodate the deputation comfortably. Mr. Kilgour, who acted as spokesman, asked that the Council should delav putting off men on the Council’s relief works until a reply had been received from the Acting-Premier to Mr. Taylor’s telegram. Mr. Dobson, city surveyor, at the Mayor’s request, explained that, with the exception of work at Linwood Cemetery, all the jobs authorised by the Works Committee had been finished. Six or eight men, whose week’s work expired to-day, would be put off, and he (Mr Dobson) could not take on other men until the committee had decided on other work to be done. Mr. Kilgour then asked that the Mayor should convene a conference of local members of Parliament to discuss the question of the introduction of a Right to Work Bill in order that the unemployed problem could thus be permanently solved. The Mayor pointed out that the question was a political one, and he doubted whether the Council would be prepared to take it up. Unemployment had been experienced on several occasions in this city and district, and had invariably followed periods of overspeculation. Congestion of labor had been overcome in the past by people moving to other places. In further remarks, Mr. Kilgour said that, unless relief of a permanent character were forthcoming, the unemployed might possibly do something rash. The Mayor said that on one or two occasions Mr. Kilgour had made use of similar threats. Mr. Kilgour: It is not a threat. The Mayor said that it was a covert threat, and what Mr. Kilgour had said inside was mild to what was said outside of a similar character. Such language only created a feeling of resentment, and made those who-would otherwise he willing to assist the work’ess hesitate to give them relief. The feeling of the Council was to give relief as far as the means at its disposal would allow. His Worship pointed out that at present the Council was employing 350 men as compared with an ordinary number of 190. He added that there would be no change in the Council’s policy in the matter of finding work for the unemployed until after next Monday’s meeting of the Council. A meeting of the unemployed this afternoon decided to hold a demonstration in the city to-morrow morning, so as to bring tlieir case more forcibly before the public. A sum of £l4 9s was received in private subscriptions to-day for the unemployed. -