Competitors show high standards

Press, 6 November 1984, Page 35

Competitors show high standards

For the seventh consecutive year, competitions will be held at the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Show for apprentice builders and qualified builder tradesmen.

These competitions are organised by the Canterbury Master Builders’ and Joiners’ Association, one of the three sponsors. The other two sponsors are the Christchurch Polytechnic and — the main sponsor — Odlins, which is supplying all the materials. This year, carpentry competitions were also held at the Home Show in September, when 12 apprentices took part. At the A. and P. Show, 18 different apprentices will compete, each of them required to make a barbecue table, which they will be

expected to complete in less than three hours. There are three heats, spread over Wednesday and Thursday, and the final is on Friday morning. There will be six finalists — a representative from Waikato, last year’s winner at the A. and P. Show, the winner from the Home Show competitions, and the winners from each of the three heats. The senior competition — also held on Friday morning — is for teams of two; either two tradesmen or a tradesman and an apprentice. There will be six teams — four local ones, one from Ashburton and one from Waikato. Each team has to build a garden shed of about 1.8 metres square, which should

take about four hours to complete. The judges will assess the competitors’ efforts for accuracy, workmanship and speed, and both the barbecue tables and the garden sheds will be for sale at the show. Good prizes — mostly tools — are offered for both apprentice and. senior com-

petitors, and the winners are flown to the next industrial field days at Mystery Creek near Hamilton, in Waikato. These are held in March each year, and include the New- Zealand Framing Final

The building competitions at the Canterbury show have become a regular

event and, with keenness and rivalry among the competitors, this event has developed into a crowd pleaser. The convenor this year is Mr John Westwood, the vice-president of the Canterbury Master Builders’ and Joiners’ Association. The president of the association, Mr Bill Harrison, says that the competition judges seek both speed and accuracy, since productivity and good workmanship depend on a combination of these two. Mr Harrison also says that the association is doing its best to train as many apprentices as possible, and it is pleasing to note that whereas, last year, there were only 32 first-year apprentices at the local polytechnic, this year there were 95. He says that the building of high-cost housing has been continuing steadily, and that association members are expecting the Labour Government’s budget to include measures to stimulate building “at the lower end of the market.’’ Mr Harrison believes the association does the community a service in training apprentices, even if there is not always work for all of them. “It is good training, in any case," he says, “as the skills learned are also useful in other occupations.”

Apprentice building competitions: Wednesday 7 — first beat starting at 12.45 p.m. Thursday 8 — second heat starting at 8.45

a.m.; third heat starting at 12.45 p.m. Friday 9 — final starting at 8.45 a.m. Carpenters’ competition: Friday 9, starting at '9.15 a.m.