SUPPLY OF BRICKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 63, 15 March 1945, Page 9

SUPPLY OF BRICKS

APPEAL FOR CATEGORY A MEN P.A. AUCKLAND, This Day. "Brick manufacturers in Auckland are millions of bricks behind with their orders." stated Mr. J. A. Crum, director of the Crum Brick, Tile, and Pottery Company, New Lynn, at a sitting of the No. 1 Armed Forces Appeal Board tonight. Appeals in respect of 32 category A men engaged in the clay industry were considered by the board. Sixteen of the reservists had been directed to work after serving with the Army in New Caledonia.

A recent survey of the industry has showed that the supply position was chaotic, said Mr. Crum. His , works were 12 months behind with orders, and the output of bricks had dropped from 15,000 to 7000 a week, owing to shortage of labour. He was required to supply approximately 300,000 bricks for the erection of the Epsom Girls' Grammar School. More use was being made of bricks in view of the fact that Auckland was getting less than half its normal supplies of timber.

"We thought we were in clover when men from New Caledonia were drafted to us and understood that they were in the industry for the duration," said Mr. T. E. Clark, managing director of the Amalgamated Brick and Pipe Company, described as the largest organisation of its kind in New Zealand. The witness stated that one large kiln was still lying idle, as labour could not be found to man it. Bricks were rationed out to the most essential jobs in the city by a brick committee, which met weekly.

A question whether some of those employees who had Army service in New Caledonia to their credit could be promoted to take the place of key men who had been held on appeal since the outbreak of war was raised by the Crown representative, Mr. G. E. Mortimer. Mr. Clark explained that some of the reservists were experts in clay work, and it would require five years to train inexDerieneed workers to replace them. Decisions in all cases were reserved.