WORK IN DOMINION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23275, 18 February 1939, Page 13

WORK IN DOMINION

CARPENTERS COMING NEW SOUTH WALES MEN MANY NOW UNEMPLOYED SYDNEY, Feb. 17 Acting on advice thai; there will be plenty of work in New Zealand for some years, a number of. Newcastle carpenters have already left for New Zealand and others propose .to follow. Union officials estimate that there are between 800 and 900 unemployed carpenters in New South Wales. The Bricklayers' Union4ias 150 unemployed members, and the Plasterers' Union about 100 unemployed. •'

Keen gratification at the news contained in the Sydney cablegram was expressed yesterday by the Minister of Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb. If a considerable number of building trade workers could be obtained from Australia, the Minister said, one of the principal handicaps jof the housing programme would De removed and it would be possible to push on the work more rapidly. ( : Mr. Webb said he was - certain that the information would not deter the Government from sending Mr. J. Hodgens, M.P. for Palmerston North, to Sydney, as already arranged. It was very necessary, he remarked, that men of the right type should be selected, and Mr. Hodgens was fully qualified for the task. He would also be able to give inquirers full information on conditions in New Zealand.

It was possible that a marked shortage of building work in Sydney might cause something in the nature of a rush to New Zealand by men who were not entirely suitable. However, conditions in Sydney and New Zealand were very similar, and Australian building trade workers had an advantage over men from further afield. As Minister of Labour he welcomed the news that Australian artisans were expected to be availably, because their arrival would mean that more unskilled ■men would be absorbed by the building industry.