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“Dept. Tells Edmonds To Go Away”

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Description: These images were taken for the November 12th, 1978 edition of the Tribune weekly newspaper, the first of which was published with the caption: “Mr Edmonds discusses Kevin Waller's problems with Mrs Waller outside the Social Welfare and Labour departments after being told he cannot do so inside.”

An excerpt from the article read: “Told that he had to get out of the Labour Department if he wanted to use the premises as a political forum, Social Credit's Peter Edmonds quit the building last week - and continued talking to unemployed people on the footpath outside the building's front door.

Mr Edmonds, the league's candidate for Palmerton North, told the Tribune he wanted to see for himself if what Palmerston North's MP, Mr. Lithgow, had been saying about unemployment was true. (Mr Lithgow has said repeatedly that the city does not have a serious unemployment problem and that jobs are available if people really want them. He has even hinted that the unemployment benefit might be an inducement for people to stay out of work.)

In seven visits to the Labour Department's employment advisory service in Queen Street, Mr Edmonds met about 60 unemployed people He said every one of the people he spoke to was ‘genuinely unemployed’. All were looking hard for jobs. And in most cases these people were reading the situations vacant columns of the "Evening Standard" as soon as the newspaper was published, telephoning the firms wanting people and finding the jobs already taken. If they were told to apply, there was usually a queue of people ahead of them, he said.”

These images form part of the Manawatū Evening Standard Negative Collection. Unfortunately, only negatives between April and December 1978 are held.