Labour From Australia

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31016, 23 March 1966, Page 1

Labour From Australia

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON. March 22.

Part of the answ’er to New Zealand’s acute labour shortage could lie in Australia, judging from the response to a New Zealand employment agency’s venture.

A two-man team, working for the industrial division of Peak Time Office Services, Ltd., has just returned from Australia, where they interviewed 565 skilled tradesmen for New Zealand jobs. “We were quite staggered at the response to our advertisement” the firm's Wellington branch manager, Mr T. Marshall, said today.

The advertisement, placed in Melbourne, Sydney, and Geelong newspapers, said that

tradesmen were sought for the textile, engineering, woodwork, automotive and printing trades in New Zealand. Successful applicants would have their fares and initial accommodation paid.

200 Vacancies

Mr Marshall said his firm was seeking staff for companies in Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland, Hastings, and Palmerston North. Altogether they had 200 vacancies to fill.

He said that the managingdirector, Mr A. J. Simons, and he were interviewing 50 to 60 people a day, all of whom were interested in coming to New Zealand. A lot were immigrants from England, some were couples who did not like the pace of the big Australian cities, and some had heard of the better welfare conditions in New Zealand. In addition to the 565 interviewed. a further 150 mail applications had been received.

Although the companies were prepared to pay fares in

return for a 12-month bond, a number of tradesmen were prepared to pay their own fares.

Many Inquiries

‘The word got around and we were getting inquiries from tradesmen we had not advertised for,” Mr Marshall said. “We had a dozen or so carpenters, some of them very experienced—we even had a couple of hard rock miners. “Towards the end we were even getting professional people inquiring—accountants, computer programmers, and draughtsmen,” Mr Marshall said.

Some of the applicants were completely ignorant of New Zealand. One man asked if it was anything like New Guinea, and another thought he would leave his daughter behind because she was a telegraph exchange trainee and there “might not be anything like that for her in New Zealand.” Mr Marshal! said the first of the successful applicants would be arriving in about three weeks.