STATE HOUSE WORKERS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19892, 21 March 1939, Page 5

STATE HOUSE WORKERS

AUSTRALIAN ARTISANS MEN ALLOTTED JOBS (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. A further batch of 42 carpenters, plumbers, electricians, painters and plasterers arrived yesterday at Auckland by the Niagara " from Sydney, under contract to the Government for its housing scheme. All the carpenters, of whom there were 17, are to be used in Auckland, but some of the other tradesmen are being sent to Hamilton and Tauranga, being the first of the Australian workmen to go there. In addition to the 42 men under contract to the Government, the Niagara carried about 20 more Australians who have come to New Zealand in search of work. Only six were carpenters and it is expected that no difficulty will be found in placing them in employment. The remainder of the men, who were not under contract, were mostly labourers and clerks who will be assisted in the normal way by the State placement service. Three officers of the service met the Niagara and attended to landing details of the party under contract to the Government. The organisation was again so complete that all the men remaining in Auckland had been given starting chits for their various jobs before 8 o'clock. Overnight accommodation was also arranged, as was the case with the tradesmen who arrived last week by the Awatea. The Niagara's party was for the most part composed of men who said they were not satisfied with the present state of the building trade in Australia. The most frequent complaint expressed was the amount of broken time experienced. They said there was no such thing at the present time as a steady job and even defence measures and rebuilding programmes in the areas recently stricken by bush fires had made little difference to the employment available for skilled men.