TRAINING OUR OWN MEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 17, 21 January 1939, Page 12

TRAINING OUR OWN MEN

The Minister of Housing (Mr. Armstrong) is convinced that/if the housing shortage is to be overcome more tradesmen will be needed. In discussing yesterday his recent trip to the South Island-Mr. Armstrong said that, the need for more skilled labour was acute. This has been obvious for some time and not only in the building industry. The poin^ of immediate concern is what the Government intends to do about it,; Mr. Armstrong spoke yesterday of the possibility of bringing more tradesmen from overseas and said that action had already been taken to go into the whole question of the resumption of an ' immigration scheme. This is encouraging as far as it goes, but if New Zealand's labour problem is to be solved by immigration there will have to be more action than has been evident so far. Already there has been too much delay in coming to grips with the immigration question and further delay will only intensify the problem. . While we have advocated immigration as one means of meeting New Zealand's labour needs, we have also stressed from time to time the desirability of training our own young men who, for a variety of reasons, may have had no opportunity of learning a trade. Many of these men today are employed on public works as labourers and, under present conditions, they have little chance of becoming anything else. Can the Government hold out any hope to these men? Referring to the building trade, Mr. Armstrong said yesterday that for certain classes of work, such as brick veneer and concreting, many of the builders have had great success in training young men, some of whom had quickly become quite proficient. What applies to the building trade can surely be made to alpply to other trades. Is the Government satisfied that everything possible is being done to facilitate the training of young men for useful occupations? Or are there obstacles, such as the reluctance of trade unions to support an accelerated training system for fear of the trades being swamped? An exact statement on this question might furnish material for constructive work by the proposed councils of industry. Certain it is that the shortage of labour will continue an acute problem while the country is prosperous unless it is tackled courageously.