HOUSING SCHEME

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20768, 1 July 1937, Page 8

HOUSING SCHEME

NEARLY 1000 MEN DIRECTLY EMPLOYED By Telegraph- ?ress Association WELLINGTON, June 30. Evidence of the extent to which the activities of the Department of Hotsing Construction is contributing and likely to contribute towards the solution of the unemployment problem, was made apparent in a study of figures made available by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Housing. Mr J. A. Lee. Mr Lee. said that up to a fortnight ago there were engaged in actual housing construction 918 employees. These men were engaged in actual Constructional work and the above figures took no cognisance of men engaged in allied trades, such as the manufacture of bricks and tiles and pipes and stoves and those engaged in getting timber out of the bush and making concrete accessories and so on. The Department was commencing to call for tenders with greater speed, said Mr Lee, and it was probable at a point at which the programme contemplated by the Government attained there would be no fewer than 4000 employees engaged in actual building construction. To that could be added at least an equal number engaged in the preparation of the necessary materials. Construction had so far started only in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Hutt, Johnsonville, Auckland, Palmerston North and Wanganui, and in some of these places work was being held up owing to a shortage of skilled labour. Tenders had been called for 1081 houses to date, but construction was only likely to start on the majority of these during the next few months.