MEN IN INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 52, 2 March 1944, Page 4

MEN IN INDUSTRY

RETENTION OF THE FIT

COMPLETE DETAILS GIVEN

Complete details of the fit men who have been retained in industry during the present war were given to the House of Representatives last night by Mr. P. G. Connolly (Government, Dunedin West) in moving the Address-in-Reply motion. The speaker, who has served as a lieutenant-commander and has been decorated in this war, declared that many erroneous statements had been made about the number of fit men held in industry, but held that their retention was necessary to maintain the industrial liicj)t the community.

Mr. Connolly stated that the fit men retained comprised" 10,391 single and 28,623 married. Of those there were 4634 single men and 7928 married men engaged in farming; in mines and sawmills, 1108 single, 2108 married; building and construction, 105 single, 1726 married; transport and communications, 1397 single, 5283 married; food processing, 573 single, 2810 married; hospitals and other institutions, 774 single, 2582 married; other secondary industries, 424 single, 1973 married; commerce and finance, 155 single, 1602 married; others, including police, clergy, and students, 1223 single, 2601 married. As against the total of single men retained in industry, more than 75,000 single men had joined the forces. COMPARATIVE FIGURES. New Zealand's peak mobilisation in the present war, said Mr. Connolly, had reached 189,000, as compared with 124,000 in the last war, the percentage in relation to population in this war being 11.6, as against 11.3 in the last war. Those who had served overseas in the last war numbered 100,788, or a percentage of 9.1 of. the population. The corresponding figures for this war were 109,000, or 6.7 per cent. It had J to be borne in mind that circumstances in this war were entirely different from those in the last war, when there was no threat of invasion to New Zealand.

"Parliament this session," concluded Mr. Connolly, "will be called upon to deal with this matter, and I believe the. decision will be the same decision as in the past, that we will go' on giving the very best to' the United Nations. We have an achievement in the last four and a half years of which we are all proud, and we will go on until victory is won."