BIG BUILDING DROP

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31326, 23 March 1967, Page 3

BIG BUILDING DROP

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 22. The employment situation in the Auckland building industry is “extremely serious” and in the boat-build-ing business “things have never been worse.”

The secretary of the Auckland Carpenters’ Union, Mr A. Russ, said: “The position is extremely serious one large firm has already put off 20 of its 100 men.” A boatbuilders, Mr T. Atkinson, said: “I’ve never

known things to be worse.”

He had been forced to cut his staff from 12 to three because of lack of orders. Mr Russ said a recent survey he made of building contractors showed that work in the housing and small factory construction field had been halved. In Auckland, 1332 fewer houses were built between April 1 and December 31, last year, compared with the same period in 1965. “That number will double next year if the Government puts into operation its withdrawal of £3 million from the State Advances Corporation,” added Mr Russ.

The manager of the Auckland Master Builders’ Association, Mr G. F. Knowles, said there was an alarming drop in the number of permits issued for houses and flats in Auckland in recent years. The 1966 figure was some 20 per cent down on the previous year. Commercial building had also dropped a lot. He said a recent statement by the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) was that sufficient new public works would

be fed to the industry to prevent serious damage. “While apparently reassuring, this is not, in fact, borne out by the work position of the industry ; here,” he said. The industry would feel the effects of Government controls on building programming and credit restrictions for some years yet. The work position in the Auckland area was either not understood in Wellington or was being deliberately ignored.