LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 15

LABOUR NOTES.

HOUSES IN DEMAND

N.Z.-MADE FURNITURE. (By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.) UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. Monday, February G. —Shipwrights. Tuesday, February 7.—Engineering Trades, Seamen, Drivers, Rubber Workers, Metalworkers' Assistants, Ferries Employees. Wednesday, February S.—Oneliunga Carpenters. Thursday, Febru'arj- o.—Boilermakers. WAGES FOR MECHANICS. In reply to "Motor Mechanic," Par- 1 nell:—The new motor mechanics' agreement was handed to Mr. Gilmour, Industrial Magistrate, to be made into an award on November 4, 1938, and is now printed. Vital points are: —Wages for all except wreckers are retrospective to March 25, 1935. Wreckers' wages are retrospective to May 1, 1935. The minimum rates of wages are as follows:—"A" grade motor mechanics, 2/11 per hour; inspectors, 2/11; assemblers, 2/7J; vulcanisers, 2/7 V; motor mechanics, 2/9; 'battery workers, 2/7 A; improvers, 2/7 i; welders, 2/lOi; wreckers, 2/5. STATE HOUSING. From time to time complaints are heard from applicants, so far unsuccessful ill their requests for a State house, of unfairness in the allocation of the houses on completion. With over 1500 applications for State rental houses to be considered, it is only natural that some of the applicants should be disappointed. Although State houses are being turned out in great numbers, they are still few in comparison to the number of people who are waiting. The Minister of Housing, Mr. H. T. Armstrong, refutes the- accusation that any particular class is not fairly considered in the allocation of the houses.

A schedule forwarded by the Minister shows that the occupations represented in the 105 cases selected for houses in Auckland in December were as follows: Clerks 22, labourers IG, carpenters 8, public servants 7, salesmen 0, wateraiders, motor drivers and foremen, 5 each; fitters, pensioners and motor mechanics, 4 'each; widows, travellers, retired, telegraphists, engineers, linesmen, scho,ol teachers, and tram conductors, 3 each; timber workers, tinsmiths, cranemon, warehousemen, meat inspectors, machinists, slaughtermen, blacksmiths, cleaners, draughtsmen, and cabinet makers, 2 each; vulcaniser, baker, metal worker, brewery employee, gardener, driver, Customs officer, supervisor, contractor, lorry driver, garage manager, housewife, seaman, railway inspector, plasterer, tunneller, grocer, accountant, storeman, boilermaker, tobacconist, harbour board employee, rcctor, caterer, storekeeper, shop assistant, mill hand, inquiry officer, freezing worker, moulder, welfare officer, concrete worker, compositor, stationm aster, milk roundsman, union organiser, jeweller, joiner, briekmaker, post office worker, tailor, greengrocer, French polisher, glass beveller, projectionist, cable joiner, glazier, packer, wireman, hardware assistant, * domestic, boot •manufacturer, sales manager, fish curcr, lacquer sprayer and widower, one each. SECONDARY INDUSTRIES. Local manufacturers report trade improving as a result of a demand for New Zealand-made £oods. Local furniture factories are in this category, and when New Zcalanders become patriotic and ask for local articles made from our own New Zealand timber, the furniture trade will become busier still. The big trouble now is securing skilled tradesmen enough to cope with the orders. Even in ordering furniture, we are, to some extent, the slaves of fashion and, notwithstanding the fact that tlio Dominion grows some of the finest timber for making .furniture in the shape of kauri, rimu, puriri, rewa•rewa and a host of other timbers, many couples aim to start their new homes fitted out witli oak and maple fittings, ignorant of the fact that tlieir own native timbers withstand the attack of the borer and worm better than the imported timbers. Of course, when oak is mentioned, the unitiated have in mind the oak of Old England, which is symbolical almost of the word "everlasting," when the fact is that the bulk of the oak used locally is imported from Japan and other Asiatic countries. English oak is • unprocurable except. at a very costly. price, and therefore not within the reach of the average furnisher's purse. The Asiatic oak is an easy subjects for the borer and only the expert can tell the difference between the two oaks. The maple from Canada is not so proof against the parasite in our climate as it is in its own country. And after all, what is more beautiful or lasting than furniture made from our native-grown timber? Our youth are now being, apprenticed to learn the skilled trades and it will not be long before the ranks of our journeymen, so sadly depleted during the years of depression, will be recruited from our own people. - '

MACHINES AND LABOUR. "In South Wales and Monmouthshire the mining industry, tihe industry in! that district, is, "because of its improved methods of production, putting more men on the road than the other industries, even the new ones, can absorb," said Mr. Daggar, M.P., in a recent speech. "Let me give one example of what I mean. In 1931 in South Wales and Monmouthshire, there were 37,054,000 tons of saleable coal produced by ' 158,162 miners; last year the amount of coal produced was, 37,773,000 tons, and that was produced by 135,901 miners. "To take a comparison with the year 1031; that means that G59,000 more tons of coal «wero produced in 1937 by 22,161 fewer mine workers, and 3*ou can coinpare that with the establishment of a trading estate in the same period which only gives employment to 720 men. That is the problem, or a part of it, as we seo it in. South Wales and Monmouthshire."