ORAKEI HOUSING SCHEME

Southland Times, Issue 23288, 26 August 1937, Page 5

ORAKEI HOUSING SCHEME

PROGRESS OF WORK STILL HALTED NO GOVERNMENT ACTION TAKEN (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 25. Progress of work on the State housing scheme at Orakei remains completely halted. Although the carpenters and other men on the job who ceased work last week held further conversations with union officials and among themselves today no settlement between them and the Fletcher Construction Company has been reached and it is not known when work will be resumed. Since the failure on Monday of the conference between the interested parties that was called by Mr W. J. Lyon, M.P. for Waitemata, on the authority of the acting Minister of Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb) no action has been taken by the Government to intervene in the dispute. The secretary of the Auckland Carpenters’ and Joiners’ Union Mr J. G. Kennerley) said he did not know if the Under-Secretary for Housing (Mr J. A. Lee) intended to take any steps in the matter. On the other side of the dispute both the Auckland Master Carpenters’ Union and the Fletcher Construction Company are interested parties but so far as is known in Auckland nothing has been done in Wellington to enlist State aid in order to reach a settlement. The president of the New Zealand Federation of Labour (Mr J. McLagen) arrived at Auckland from Wellington by aeroplane "today and later met delegates and officials of the union. WASTAGE OF MATERIALS The effect of the interruption upon the solution of the housing problem in Auckland was pointed out by Mr W. J. Fletcher who said that for every day the men refused to work the time when the houses would be available to help relieve the shortage would be correspondingly delayed. There was also the possibility of financial loss through wastage of materials which could not be used so long as work was not proceeded with and although at present no waste was occurring the position could be seriously changed if the strike continued. According, to the Government contract under which the houses are being built the firm was allowed • 10 months to complete 208 houses and although it had the right to deduct time for work not done through wet weather the firm had estimated that the contract would have been completed within the stipulated time had it not been for the present disturbance. Until last week the schedule of work was well up to date. The penalty clause in the contract fortunately did not apply to time lost through industrial troubles, there being a condition that the period of 10 months could be insisted upon only if sufficient labour was available to carry out the work. In the event of a strike time lost was deducted from the penalty period, said Mr Fletcher. However, the firm had set itself to complete the houses in as short a time as possible in order to help relieve the housing shortage and the present interruption to work was' viewed very seriously.