Builders and Contractors

Progress, Volume XI, Issue 4, 1 December 1915, Page 491

Builders and Contractors

At the recent annual meeting of the Wellington Builders and Contractors’ Industrial Union of Employers the annual report (which was adopted) showed that, owing to the dislocation of all business and the feelings of unrest and anxiety owing to the great European war, there had been a marked falling off on the part of members in active interest in the affairs of

the union. While members have relations and friends amongst the forces in the firing line it was perhaps natural that interest in other matters should be overshadowed, and there was no doubt that that explained the want of active interest in the meetings. The president of the New Zealand Federated Builders and Contractors in person visited each centre, submitting proposals for the appointment of an officer of the federation whose duties should include the organising of new builders’ associations and building up those already in existence; also, the attendance at Conciliation Council and Arbitration Court sittings as agent for the employers in all trade disputes. Wellington decided to support any workable scheme in the direction indicated, but owing to the outbreak of war the matter has dropped in the meantime. For long it has been the wish of members that they should have premises they might call their own, and the committee decided to rent a room in the National Mutual Buildings. Some pleasant gatherings have been held in the room. As a result of letters written in the name of the association to the Wellington Technical School Board it was reported that there was every prospect of a board of control in building construction being established in the near future. It was proposed that the board should consist of a representative each from the Institute of Architects, Master Builders’ Association, and the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters} and Joiners, with two members of the Technical School Board. The scheme was approved, and the president of the Builders and Contractors’ Union was appointed Master Builders’ representative. As there was no special or sufficiently important business to warrant the calling together of the Federated Builders for the annual meeting, it was generally agreed it was inadvisable, on account of the war, that a meeting should be held. However, it was decided that the annual conference of the New Zealand Federated Builders and Contractors’ Industrial Association of Employers should be held in Wellington on the 2nd November, The election of officers resulted as follows: President, Mr. H. Mainland; vice-president, Mr. J. C. Brown; treasurer, Mr. A. Johnstone; committee, Messrs. W. H. Bennett, A. M. Wilson, and P. C. Watt; auditors, Messrs. W. I. Clark and W. Parkins; delegates to builders’ conference, Messrs. H. Mainland, A. Campbell, and W. L. Thompson. There are cases in which men feel too keenly to be silent, and perhaps too strongly to be wrong.” Ruskin on Architecture. “More is to be learnt by the critical examination of one good building than by the ruthless analysis of a dozen bad ones. T. G. Jackson. •