MORE WORKERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 55, 7 March 1939, Page 11

MORE WORKERS.

OVERSEAS ARRIVALS.

20 LANDED YESTERDAY.

CHANCES FOR SKIIXEP MEN.

Swelling the number of overseas workers who have come to New Zealand dining the past few months in search of employment, 20 tradesmen arrived at Auckland yesterday i n two overseas liner?. The majority were passengers from Australia in the Matson liner Monterey, and the Canadian-Australasian liner Niagara, from Vancouver, brought about five from Canada and other parts of the British Empire. The number of tradesmen who have arrived from overseas at all New Zealand passenger ports since the beginning of the year is believed to run into hun" dreds. The steady stream of workers, particularly from Australia, gives striking indication of the spread in overseas countries of reports that the Dominion is experiencing a shortage of skilled men. That the arrivals in most cases will cau.;e no glut on the labour market here is suggested bv the fact that officers of the State Placement Service in Auckland are experiencing no difficulty in placing in emplovment those of the applicants who arc skilled tradesman.

It is recognised, however, that men classed as . unskilled would be illadvised to join in the influx from overseas.

Through Mr. A. J. Ridler, Controller of Employment, who was visiting Auckland yesterday, it was learned that the men who arrived in the Niagara and the Monterey included, according to their own descriptions, four carpenters, two bricklayers, two miners, two railway employees, a butcher, a bricklayer's labourer, an iron and steel moulder, a baker, a builder's labourer, a boot finisher, a car painter, a motor mechanic and an electrical linesman. Last week's arrivals included 11 Australians and two Canadians, and in the previous week there were 15 from Australia, three from Canada, two from Fiji and one from Britain. Several of them have gone on to other parte of New Zealand. Met by Placement Officers. Contact is made with the men by officers of fEe Placement Service immediately they arrive, and this is followed later by more detailed interviews. Mr. Ridler explained that the organisation was alive to the fact that men were arriving on practically every boat, and it was considered desirable that the service, as part of its work, should ascertain their qualifications. i

"Our aim is to ensure that their special qualifications and skill are not wasted, and to help them to obtain suitable employment as early as possible," he added. "We don't want to see them merely trust to luck and perhaps get into jobs where their training and experience is of comparatively little use."

Confirmatioii of the qualifications which the men say they possess is not always possible before they are put to the test of actual work, but it was learned yesterday that in one or two cases verification has been obtained from their previous employers. Instances were mentioned of "check-ups" being made in Palestine and London. In any case, it was stated, the placement officers are usually able to tell, from their' experience in dealing with all types of men, whether an applicant is all he makes himself out to be.

The present influx must still be dis-1 tinguished from the Government's plan 1 to "import" skilled building tradesmen from Australia, Canada and Great Britain. The first of the men now being enlisted in Australia by Mr. J. Hodgens, M.P., are not expected to arrive in New Zealand before next week. Native Youths From Islands. Another interesting movement of labour into New Zealand has become evident in recent months. This is the arrival of young Tongan, Samoan and other island natives—mostly half-castes r-to seek work in the Dominion.

The Apia correspondent of the "Auckland Star" says an~ increasing number of local-born boys and girls have lately travelled from Samoa to New Zealand, and there is already a growing colony of islanders in -Auckland and a smaller group in Wellington. It is stated that most of the youngsters succeed in getting good and well-paid work in New Zealand.

An officer of the Government's Youth Centre in Auckland .said to-day that he personally had not come across many Samoans here, but he knew of a halfcaste lad who had entered the baking trade and another who was employed in an engineering shop. The centre, however, had had experience with three or four Tongan boys whom it had placed on farms. They were doing extremely well at their work.

"There is a growing feeling throughout the Islands that good opportunities are open to native youths, particularly half-castes, in New Zealand," he said.