10 JULY 1909, Page 2

The Wellington correspondent of the Times says in Tuesday's paper

that there is considerable distress in New Zealand through unemployment. The Acting Minister of Finance has stated the situation as follows. Last year the works fund was aided by £800,000 from the revenue; this year the fund would receive little, if any, 'assistance from the revenue. The Government had been spending at the rate of £2,400,000 a Year on works, but this year only £1,400,000 was

available. It was impossible, with the means available, to find work for all the unemployed. He proposed next Session to introduce a Bill for insurance against unemployment on the model of the scheme recently outlined by Mr. Churchill in the House of Commons. At present a hundred and thirty thousand people, or nearly one-seventh of the population, depended upon the Government for their livelihood.