1400 HOUSES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 55, Issue 32672, 4 February 1946, Page 7

1400 HOUSES

BUILDING PROGRAMME EX-SERVICEMEN TRAINEES FILLIP TO INDUSTRY Ex-servicemen trained at Rehabilitation Board trade training centres will, it is hoped, build 1400 State houses during the year ending March 31, 1947, a statement issued by the Rehabilitation Department. This will be almost double the number for the year ending in March next, and 10 times the total for the year ended March, 1945. The figures for those latter periods are 790 (completed find under construction) and 140 respectively. In addition there will be a substantial number of houses built by exservicemen who have completed their training and are working for private employers. •‘An even greater programme might be contemplated if there were an assurance of sufficient materials coming forward,” says the statement. At present there are more applications from exservicemen wishing to train at the centres than can be handled. However, as more timber and other ’ building materials now in short supply come to hand the board should be able to extend its training centres until the maximum intake of trainees compatible with the needs of the industry is reached. A sudden increase in the number of centres or the switching of surplus applications into subsidised private employment in itself would not solve the problem unless the materials were available to employ the trainees as they were absorbed. The availability of building sites for trainees and the receipt of housing contracts are other matters that have to be considered, while in some areas yet another problem has been the acquiring of suitable premises for training centres. Servicemen Responding ■’ln almost every trade the war brought staff depletions and a startling decrease in the number of apprentices. This was particularly serious in the building industry, facing as it does, one of the greatest housing shortages in the country’s history. Thus every ex-serviceman trained as a carpenter, bricklayer, plasterer or painter under the board’s intensive and direct courses means one more tradesman to help provide houses for the many needing them.

A corresponding healthy desire among men of the forces to learn a skilled trade or occupation on re-enter-ing civil life, has been increasingly noticeable. This is reflected in the numbers applying for some form of training under the Rehabilitation Board’s schemes. Every day sees a further batch of approved trainees commencing an entirely new life, acquiring a skilled occupation, either placed on subsidy with a private employer, or given the chance to learn a building trade, at one of the board’s centres. "The most recent statistics available —those showing the position as at the end of November last—give the number of ex-servicemen approved for some form of trade training under the board’s schemes as 4896, of whom 4012 had seen service overseas and the remainder were home-service-men. Of that total, 2057 had been approved for training at the board’s centres, 1775 for training on subsidy with private employers, 687 whose pre-service apprenticeships had been revived or resumed with aid from the board and 377 who had been approved for training at the centres of the Disabled Servicemen’s Re-establishment League. There were at November 30, a total of 2911 ex-servicemen actually undergoing some form of training, while 1020 had completed their courses, 341 were awaiting to start and 624 for some reason or other had decided to discontinue. “During November alone there were 436 ex-servicemen approved for training, 271 of those being for subsidised attachment to private employers and 94 for training at State centres. There were 245 who actually started their courses during that month, while those who completed their training numered 31. * Many Carpenters "Of those training at the board’s centres 1052 were tearing carpentry, there being 321 doing their preliminary indoor work, 436 engaged on their first outdoor period, working on State houses ajid 295 undergoing the ex-