TO THE WORKERS ON PUBLIC WORKS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 113, 6 February 1936, Page 8

TO THE WORKERS ON PUBLIC WORKS

The Minister of Public WSrks has served notice to the men of his department, in terms that - admit of no misunderstanding, that they will have to work hard in order to keep their jobs, and the good he has promised them. “Any man who takes a job with the uh k Works thinking he is going to have an easy time." said he to the workers at the Mangere Air Base on Tuesday, "is making a terrible mistake.” Mr. Semple probably knows the psychology, of the workers as well as, if not better than, anyone in New Zealand. He has worked with them, and in personal enterprises he has. bossed them He has the reputation of being< a hard worker on the job. and a strltt task-master with men under him. He is now the Ministerial head of a great State department in which thousands of pounds of public money are spent. This, department has had t<> contend in the past with disgruntled sections of workers, agitators, go-slow tactics, and strikes. Not infrequently the officers in charge of costly public woik-> have been let down badly by the politicians of. the day when endeavotning to enforce discipline and a fair return of labour for the wage, paid. As one result, the cost of public works has often exceeded the estimate; as another, discipline has been sapped and authority weakened. Does Mr. Semple’s warning to the workers of his department mean that an end is to be made of that unsatisfactory state of afirans. It is a welcome utterance. The Minister is evidently proceeding on the assumption that if his men work hard and really earn the higher wages, the jobs need not cost more. It is a,perfectly sound assumption. The people of this country, through past experience, have become apathetically habituated to that indifferent display of energy on public works contemptuously described “the Government stroke, and as apathetically to the high cost of public works a? compared with those directed by private enterprise. The responsibility for this rests largely upon the politicians, and no particular party can argue itself out of it. With a Labour Government now in power, the idlers among the workers apparently expected to lead sheltered and easeful lives. Mr. Semple’s own experience among the workers, and also among the politicians, has enabled biii, to sense the danger that threatens the efficiency of his department in this respect, and it may be hoped that he will be able to make good his expressed detei initiation.