PUBLIC WORKS
HINDERED BY LACK OF MEN.
Various optimists expected that the signing of. the Armistice would give an immediate fillip to public works in New Zealand. This hope has outrun the men who may be available some day. Sir William Fraser said this morning that the Armistice had not yet brought any new labour to his Department, which was still three thousand men short of the normal need for public works. He did not expect that the position could be ■much improved at present by the release of m^n from camp, because he expected that nearly all of these hands would be absorbed ill town occupations and farming work. The soldiers who would return to New Zealand during the next three months would be mainly clearances from hospitals. Very few, if any, would be able to take up hard manual work.. The embarkation of the fit men would not begin till the terms of peace were settled: Sir William remarked that he did not expect that much extra labour would be obtainable before the end of April or the beginning of May. Meanwhile the rate of expenditure on public works was necessarily limited by the amount' of labour »v*il*ble.
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Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 155, 28 December 1918, Page 7
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200PUBLIC WORKS Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 155, 28 December 1918, Page 7
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