LABOUR FOR TRADES

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20690, 28 December 1938, Page 2

LABOUR FOR TRADES

MEN FROM OVERSEAS STATEMENT BY MINISTER Reference to the shortage of skilled labour in the Dominion and to the possibilities of immigration was made by the Minister in Charge of Stale Advances and Housing Construction, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, in an Interview published by tiie Labour journal, the Standard. “The principal difficulty confronting us is the scarcity skilled labour,’’ said Mr Armstrong when referring to State housing construction. “We must obtain more skilled labour, and what we cannot get in our own country we must get elsewhere. Some hundreds of skilled tradesmen have come from England and Scotland, and numbers are coming here all the time from Australia. These men are coming at their own expense ami we really have no record of them. However, we do know that the number employed in the building industry is very much greater and that many have come from overseas. Selection Problem ‘The question^of immigration will have to be gone Into immediately by the Government.’’ he said. “But we want to know definitely what we are going to do with immigrants before they come here and we want to be sure they are of the right type. Some men may be highly skilled at their trades and callings in their own countries and yet not be suitable to New Zealand conditions, and, if we are not careful, we might be bringing misfits into the country. “My own view as Minister of Immigration is that as far as possible any assisted immigrant brought into this country should be selected by some person with a thorough understanding of New Zealand conditions,” the Minister added. “I think that while there is such a serious shortage of skilled workers for the building trades it is just as well that housing and immigration should go together.”