SHORTAGE OF SKILLED MEN

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20691, 29 December 1938, Page 6

SHORTAGE OF SKILLED MEN

Shortage of skilled labour in New Zealand has persuaded the Minister of Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb, to prepare the way for an amendment of the apprenticeship laws. He is convinced that it is first necessary to call interested parties together to hammer out the best method of attacking the problem. Admittedly the apprenticeship laws and their operation in New Zealand have been unsatisfactory for some years. One of the most unfortunate results is that thousands of men who are now unemployed would be enjoying profitable occupations had they had the benefit of an effective apprenticeship system and become skilled in some trade. In the building trade in particular there is a serious shortage of skilled men. The Government’s housing schemes are being delayed for that reason, and even if house building had been left to private enterprise the shortage would still have been acute. And in many other trades the demand exceeds the supply. Yet many able-bodied men who might have been skilled workers are earning a living with pick and shovel on public works. If the present programme is pursued the Government will find it necessary to make prompt provision for skilled training in the trades or it will have to import skilled workmen. Mr Webb declares that 10,000 more could be employed in the building trade alone. The difficulty is not lack of man-power, for there are still thousands of men on unemployment relief works.

When Mr Webb calls his conference to discuss apprenticeships it is to be hoped he will not overlook the most important aspect of all —the shortage of labour on the farms. Apprenticeships in the trades may be desirable, but many such trades are reproductive only in an indirect way. A constant supply of suitable labour for farms, however, would have the effect of increasing primary production immediately, and that is a matter of the first importance to the Dominion. This aspect of the problem is also more difficult than the position in the trades, and if Mr Webb can bring about a solution of a long-standing evil his term of office as Minister of I*abour will have become notable.