CONTRACTORS AND SUB-CONTRACTS

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 969, 9 November 1910, Page 6

CONTRACTORS AND SUB-CONTRACTS

A DIFFICULT POSITION. Possible changes of considerable irn* portance were foreshadowed in a discussion which arose at the annual meeting of the Builders' and Contractors' Federation over tho following resolution, proposed by Mr. E. H. Ashwell, of Wa- ■ ngamvi, and supported by Mr. N. Meuli,;of the same town: "That continuous efForts.be made to have the Wages Protection and Contractors Lion Act amended to provide that the principal contrac- . -tor sball not be responsible for more ■-. that .25 per-cent of the amount of any sub-contract on which alien or claim may be lodged." In discussion objection was taken to tho state of the law—disclosed by a r©" cent : decision. of Judgo Cooper—which in effect made contractors responsible for the whole liabilities of those to whom they had let sub-contracts. Mem* bers remarked that 'the conditions thus imposed practically forced them into the position of dispensing, with sub-ocui" tractors altogether. Subsequent speakers took up this contention and elaborated it. It was complained that sub-contractors snowed an increasing tendency to establish each their particular branch as a separate and independent trade. If this " development continued the final effect would bo to divide tho authority of the principal contractor between,half a dozen different people who now were sub-con-tractors. This would involve ah absolute loss of working efficiency. Several members stated that they looked to a time, in the near future when builders'

would employ directly every class of workmen engaged in the building trade. • ■ The Wanganui resolution was carried unanimously. On Thursday morning the conference is to discuss "the status of the master builder." The subject will be introduced by Mr. AV. H. Bennett.