HELPING BUILDING TRADE

Evening Star, Issue 21116, 31 May 1932, Page 7

HELPING BUILDING TRADE

STATEMENT BY MR COATES SUBSIDY SCHEME WELCOMED [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, May 30. The new scheme by which the Unemployment Board will subsidise the wages of certain skilled unemployed men to enable the reabsorption in the b*uilding industry is already meeting with a gratifying response, according to the Minister of Employment (Right Hon. J. G. Coates), who passed through Auckland to-day on his return to Wellington. Mr Coates said that although the scheme had just been announced he had already received many inquiries from potential employers under the scheme. Hhe had received one offer involving £20,000 worth of labour. Mr Coates said the actual amount of wages received bv men engaged under the scheme would be a matter for arrangement between the employer and the men themselves. Judging by the number of telegrams he had received offering employment under these terms and asking for further particulars the proposal was being keenly welcomed. It would bo the means of providing a number of skilled men with something more satisfying than pick-and-shovel work and with employment that would return them a better wage. The Minister added that the other schemes of relief work throughout the country were proceeding very satisfactorily/ The men themselves were responding. and the public generally was very helpful. The ten-acre farm scheme was developing in an encouraging manner. SHOULD BE LIMITED TO PUBLIC BUILDINGS. WELLINGTON. May 30. Mr J. W. Grab am, president of the Master Builders and Contractors’ Federation. commenting on the Government’s .scheme for assisting the building trade, said that the master builders appreciated the fact that the scheme aimed at stimulating what was regarded in America as a key industry. A scheme involving portion of the unemployment funds being spent in improving private property required exhaustive consideration before he.ng placed in operation. His personal opinion was that the scheme should he confined to public buildings or organisations, and not carried on for private profit or in competition with* private enterprise. He mentioned the Dunedin Post Office, the Christchurch State Fire Building, the Dominion Museum, and various post offices and railway buildings, ami also the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Industrial Hall, stating that a loan from the fund at low interest or free of interest would enable the last-named building to proceed.