WORK IN N.Z.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 112, 15 May 1939, Page 10

WORK IN N.Z.

500 IMMIGRANTS.

FROM ENGLAND.

FOR HOUSING SCHEME.

ENGAGED BY GOVERNMENT. ——- i FIRST BATCH LEAVING. The lirst butch of 100 artisans out of u total of .")(io to In; engaged in England are either on the water now or will be leaving in the course of the next few days for work in Xew Zealand under the Government's hem-dnjr scheme. This fUHiouneetnenl was made by tinMinister of Housing, the lion. 11. X. Armstrong, who arrived from Wellington by the Limited express this morning. He said the men wen being sent out in '•balanced proportion" so that the scheme could go along smonthly. The greater number would be carpenters and joiners. All the men would arrive at Wellington, where most of them would be. employed.

The Minister said that about twothirds of the artisans who had come from Australia recently for work under the housing scheme had been employed at Wellington, but despite that more houses were being completed in Auckland tli'an in Wellington because the building trade there was exceedingly busy at the present time with the constriK'tiun of larjje commercial houses, while sufficient skilled workers to build .">()() dwellings had been engaged on the inhibition building.

'"-Men are coming from Australia in small batches who are not under contract to the (iovernment," added the Minister. "They are seeking work on their own account. It is because of the visit of .Mr. J. Hodgens, M.P. for Palmerston North, that_thcv have decided to throw in their lot in the Dominion He was able to tell the Australian artisans what the tiovernment was achieving in Xew Zealand as far as house construction is concerned, and the response has been most satisfactory."