WORKERS FOR PLUMBING

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27916, 13 March 1956, Page 18

WORKERS FOR PLUMBING

SELECTIVE SYSTEM CRITICISED (N&o Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, March 12. As long as the intake into the industry .was governed by the' shortsighted, outmoded selective system which had operated with little variation for a long time, plumbers would become no more than an exclusive band of “has beens,” said the president of the New Zealand Society of Master Plumbers (Mr H. Martin) in his address to the annual conference in Invercargill today. Only initiative and understanding at Government level of the obstacles to be overcome could arrest the deterioration in the labour force, he said. The resolution of the Wellington Apprenticeship Committee to sponsor the setting up of yet another representative committee to which all applicants would be referred and from there directed to employers, was just another step towards direction of manpower, said Mr Martin. “It is satisfying to learn that both the Wellington and Hutt Valley Master Plumbers’ Associations turned down the invitation to participate in the new scheme. They considered that an association is itself best able to handle recruitment,” Mr Martin said.