QUALIFIED ENGINEERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 295, 10 November 1934, Page 7

QUALIFIED ENGINEERS.

SCOPE FOR EMPLOYMENT,

Expressions that the engineering ■Works at present in Jiand throughout the Dominion offered opportunities for the absorption of many qualified engineers who are performing duties below those to which their credentials entitle them were made last evening at. the annual conference of the Wellington North branch of the Society of Civil Engineers. The discussion arose out of an address delivered on the construction of the new Fitzherbert bridge. Mr A. R. Aeheson, assistant Public Works Department engineer at Palmerston North, stated that this work had justified the appointment of Mr J. E. Menzies as resident engineer, and said he thought there were many other jobs in the Dominion that should be similarly filled. In a tour of the "United States he had learned that even jobs costing only about £IO,OOO had a chief engineer and two assistants, besides other staff members. “In a job of this size with decidedly high technique the supervision must be very good and a clerk of works has not got the time to cover the job properly, 5 ' Mr Aeheson commented. “I consoler, with so many men out of work, it is a wrong policy. The day of the clerk of works is gone. 55 Mr H. H. Sharp, district engineer of the Public Works Department, Wellington, said he knew of eight young men wbo had qualified for the degree of Bachelor of Engineering and who were only gangers in a relief camp. “To-day we have to see we have up-to-date highways and the average county engineer has not got the time to get down on the job and sort out the measurements for the curves. If lie asks for assistance he is thought to be extravagant, but the extra class of work demands it. On the other hand, there are young men out of work. AVe should, impress it on the councils,” Mr Sharp proceeded. “Nearly every engineer present could find work for one or two young men. AVe are endeavouring to do good work under very great difficulties. 55 lie added that highway work, in particular, offered avenues for the qualified engineers who were available and did not think such an expression unreasonable. “The local bodies have to be educated up to it,” he said.