“THINGS DEAD IN SYDNEY”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 1 March 1939, Page 6

“THINGS DEAD IN SYDNEY”

«. plasterers OUT OF WORK | MORE CARPENTERS ARRIVE AT j AUCKLAND fUnited Press Association] AUCKLAND. This Day. ! Seeking employment in New Zealand, j batches of carpenters and allied trades- j men have been arriving at Auckland ; in practically every ship from Austra- I ha in the past few weeks apart alto - I gether from the Government's move to l import skilled tradesmen through en- j listments by Mr Hodgens. M.P., who is now in Australia. Six more carpenters arrived by the Wnngarclla to-day. also j three master builders, who are investigating the possibility of transferring j their businesses to New Zealand. One j said he could easily bring fifty men over. "Things have gone dead in Syd- j ney,” he said, adding that he knew of j a plastered who employed forty men j and now had no work. He hoped to ! send a cable to Sydney within a few days asking for carpenters and other tradesmen to join him here. He said that before leaving Sydney he talked with Mr Hodgens. and felt sure that under the Government’s scheme only the best tradesmen would be brought over. “Mr Hodgens is a man who knows his job.” he said, adding that there need be no fear that New Zealand would be flooded with men of an inferior type. WARNING BY MR STEVENS TRANSFER OF MONEY TO RELATIVES 1 U PA-Bv Electric Telegraph—Coovricht I (Received Ist I larch. 12.15 p.m.) SYDNEY. This Day. The Premier, Mr B. S. B. Stevens, speaking in the Hurstville by-election, said that in the face of the latest reports of building activity in New South Wales it is difficult to understand why some building trade employees were prepared to go to New Zealand. Mr Stevens, who claimed that the New South Wales Government had in operation the most active and comprehensive housing policy ever introduced in this or any other Australian State, added :

“I hope those who may go to New Zealand will satisfy themselves if they want to send any money across to their relatives or friends in Australia that they can procure the necessary exchange.” Mr Stevens said he did not object to the Labour Party in this election saying they should follow the example of New Zealand. “In New Zealand to-day the price of bricks at the kiln is 113 s per 1000. as against 68s in New South Wales. If you are going to copy New Zealand as an example then copy it; don’t just pick the eyes out of it. Use New Zealand as an authority for the fantastic theory that all workers should be carried free on Government vehicles and that wages and the cost of living should be fixed by Parliament and not by judicial tribunals.”