CHECKS KEPT ON WORKERS

Southland Times, Issue 25547, 15 December 1944, Page 4

CHECKS KEPT ON WORKERS

ESSENTIAL LABOUR FOR INDUSTRY Although, according to a statement made by the Auckland district manpower officer, a complete survey is to be made of the men and women who were registered for manpower purposes in 1942, but who were exempted from direction to jobs, there will be no similar survey in Southland. The district manpower officer for Southland, Mr A. J. Peterson, said yesterday that no general instructions for such a survey had been issued and it was possible that a survey was being carried out in the Auckland district because of the large number of workers on the register there. In Southland it was easier to keep a check on registered workers and checks were made from time to time. Recently, for example, a circular was sent to all retail establishments in Invercargill asking them to supply a list of the names of members of their staffs, male and female. The lists had been returned by the majority of the establishments to which they had been sent. The information obtained in this way would be of value if it were necessary to direct women and girls to existing essential industries or to essential industries which might start in the near future. LABOUR POSITION Referring to the labour position in Invercargill, Mr Peterson said that it was interesting to note that although two new essential industries had been started in Invercargill recently his office had as yet not received any requests for labour for these industries. It would appear, therefore, that industry in Invercargill was not experiencing any difficulty in this respect. Further proof of this was seen recently in the large number of replies received to an advertisement for women workers in a non-essential industry. If non-essen-tial industries could obtain workers essential industries should be in a better position to do so. Referring to the supply of labour for hotels and boarding houses during the holiday period, Mr Peterson said he hoped to fill all the vacancies for housemaids and waitresses. Women students would be directed to this work wherever possible. There was, however, a definite shortage of cooks and it was not easy to fill such vacancies because cooking was a skilled job for which years of training were required. V.A.’s FOR HOSPITALS

Mr Peterson said that a large number of trained voluntary aids were required for Wellington hospitals. He was trying to arrange for 30 girls to be sent north. These girls were in both essential and non-essential industries, but they had been trained as voluntary aids. He was not directing girls to work at northern factories, but he thought it was only fair that Southland should send its quota to hospitals, especially to those hospitals which were caring for servicemen from all parts of New Zealand, including Southland. Though some farmers had been slightly inconvenienced because shearers had been held up by wet weather, there had been no serious delay in shearing because of lack of manpower, Mr Peterson stated. It was anticipated that there might be a slight shortage of solo slaughtermen in Southland freezing works this season, but the position would certainly be no worse than it .was last season and there was every

indication that there would be a decided improvement. He anticipated also that sufficient labour would be available for harvesting, because 20-year-old men called up by the military authorities for service would be made available for this work.