APPRENTICESHIP LAWS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22610, 16 January 1939, Page 10

APPRENTICESHIP LAWS

Minister’s Desire

For Revision

10,000 BUILDERS NEEDED Work for New Councils Of Industry (rr.zsa ASSOCIATION TELIOBAIX.) WELLINGTON, January 15. Figures emphasising the extent of the demand for skilled labour in New Zealand were quoted fay the Minister for Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb, discussing in an interview his desire that the apprenticeship laws shall be overhauled by the industries affected.

“New Zealand is in need of 10,000 trained builders alone,” the Minister said. “There is £18,000,000 worth of public buildings waiting to be constructed, and according to departmental reports every one is necessary work. We are 20,000 houses short and we require to build at least 6000 to meet growing demands and the depreciation of old buildings.”

The overhaul of the apprenticeship laws was one of the first questions he would ask employers and workers on the industrial advisory councils, now being set up, to consider.

As a result of depression condi- , tions, Mr Webb said, the country , was faced with a problem of unskilled labour, which it was difficult to place outside general labouring work. While these men were performing excellent service to the country in improving roads, recreation grounds, and towns and cities; they were not helping materially in the production of consumable goods. “The job that faces us is to see how much this labour can be retrieved and trained for the purpose of helping in the development of secondary industries and those which produce consumable goods that people are in such need of,” the Minister said. “My experience in the training of a number of adult apprentices inspired me with the hope that if the young men who missed their opportunity during the depression are given a chance to learn a trade they will soon make better tradesmen than those likely to be obtained overseas. To bring such a result to pass will need the whole-hearted and sympathetic cooperation of all the people concerned. “Profitable Employment” “If we had skilled men to push on with all the work requiring to be done, profitable employment would soon be found for large numbers of unskilled men in various industries.” More than* 1000 of these young men were already apprenticed to the building trade, but many more were needed, the Minister said. The question of providing adult labour for the country’s secondary industries was under consideration and he was hoping that some scheme would be evolved that would absorb large numbers of men now on public and relief works in the development of secondary industries. If youth was given its chance it would find its way out and an overhaul of the apprenticeship laws was one of the first questions he would ask the employers and workers on the industrial advisory councils, now being set up, to consider. The Minister has already announced that he proposes to call a meeting of the parties concerned in Wellington on Wednesday for the purpose of setting up a council. Meetings Have already been held in Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill. - “After this,” said the Minister, “I propose to hold meetings in Auckland and the other main centres in the hope that the organisation will ultimately have its branches in every town and city in New Zealand. I have promised also to make an inspection of many of the factories and listen to the representations of companies on the class of labour that may be utilised in those industries.”