WORK FOR SOME THOUSANDS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22796, 23 August 1939, Page 8

WORK FOR SOME THOUSANDS

DEVELOPMENT AT ONEKAKA

“BIG' JOBS BEFORE LONG”.

“Before long some thousands of men will be employed at Onekaka,” said, the Minister, for Housing (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) yesterday afternoon, when he explained the Government’s measures to find work for the unemployed of Christchurch.

Thirty men from Christchurch were to be sent to Onekaka, the Minister told the meeting of unemployed.

A man: Is that in New Zealand? (Laughter.) “I can tell you that there will be big jobs going on at Onekaka before long,” replied Mr Armstrong. “There will be a terrible lot of building. A model village is to be built before the steel works begin, and much development' work is needed before the steel works are erected. There is a lot of men there now, and before long some thousands of men will be employed at Onekaka.”

Zealand, and he resented any suggestion that the Government was not sincere in its promises. It wanted everybody employed, and everybody paid. The construction might be placed on some of the remarks that the unemployed preferred a National Government, said the f chairman. He wanted to remove any grounds for such a construction. Mr Armstrong and his colleagues knew that the men were strongly behind the Government. They knew the real culprits of the obstructive tactics. Pressure was being brought to bear by overseas interests to prevent secondary industries being built up in this country, and the men ■were behind' the Government in any measures it took to rectify the position.

Mr Armstrong: I know very well that you are behind the Government, but that is no reason why you should not squeal every now and again if you feel your grievances are not being attended to. That is the right of democracy. We have a caucus where we iron out our differences, and there is some very straight talking there. We are not like a string of sausages, and we don’t think alike. It men without reasonable excuse declined to go into camp, they would have no grievance.