TENANTS LEAVE TRADES HALL

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22108, 2 June 1937, Page 10

TENANTS LEAVE TRADES HALL

# DISSATISFACTION WITH CONDITIONS VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE IN AUCKLAND (PSESS ASSOCIATION TEIJEOHAAI.) AUCKLAND, June 1. Dissatisfaction with the dilapidated state of the Trades Hall in Hobson street and the failure of the Trades Hall Trust to improve the building came to a head to-day. Tenants of offices at a recent meeting passed a vote of no confidence in members of the trust—with one exception, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage—and decided to call on them to resign. The members of the trust are Messrs Savage, E. J. Phelan, A, Rosser, G. Davis, and A. Watts, but the meeting agreed tnat its resolution should not include Mr Savage, as it was realised tnat he served only in an honorary capacity. It is stated that all tenants are now seeking new premises. Some unions nave already moved to other quarters • The Drivers' Union went first ana since then the Carpenters' and Joiners' Union and Timber Workers' Union. j Dissatistaction with the present conditions has been increasing since the rejection some months ago, of a proposal to erect a new Trades Hall at a cost of many thousands of pounds on another site. The trust later had plans prepared for modernising the present building, but nothing further has been done. In April last, eight tenants wrote to the trust requesting a conference. The trust did not comply, but wrote to the tenants agreeing that extensive alterations were needed, involving a large expenditure, and asking whether if a loan were raised for the purpose, the unions would guarantee to retain their offices during the currency of the proposed loan. The tenants then passed a vote of no confidence. Further developments are awaited, but there are indications that unless the trustees resign, enabling others to administer the affairs of the hall, or carry out a renovation scheme, the Trades Hall may develop into a white elephant.