PUBLIC WORKS AND LABOUR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 130, 26 February 1919, Page 4

PUBLIC WORKS AND LABOUR

No doubt there were settlers amongst those whom Sib William Phaser addressed the other day at Taumaruhui in regard to the general prospects of development work. It would be interesting to know what they thought about his views on labour shortage as it bears upon the vital enterprises his Department exists to carry out. As he is reported, the Minister of Public Works said that it was not the business of his Department to bid against other employers at a time of labour scarcity. If this is a fair rendering of what the Minister said, his words will hardly be greeted with enthusiasm by isolated settlers who have been waiting long and anxiously for reasonable means of communication. It is, of course, advisable that the Public Works Department should as far as possible adjust its activities with an eye to essential industrial demands, notably in as far as' possible utilising the services of men annually _ thrown out of work in seasonal industries. But to suggest without reservation that the Department should humbly vacate the labour market as long as other employers are bidding there is to reduce the whole public works system to the level of a tragic farce. The ,'igorous prosecution of development ivork is.essential at any time to the jeneral advancement and prosperity )f the Dominion. It is essential ilso as a- matter of simple good faith with settlers who have been induced to take up land on the unlerstanding that they would be pro■'ided with means of access. Public works- surely ought to bo rated ac:o_rdinglyin the scale of the Doninion's industrial activities. They iertainly ought not to be placed, at he bottom of the scale. These coniderations i hold enormously .inTeased weight at a time when the )ominion ■ has years of leeway to nake up in the construction of ■oads and bridges and other public rorks, and furthermore is intent on apidly extending the existing scope if settlement. At such a time what s needed from the Minister of 3 ublic, Works is not a polite reusal to compete with other employes,, but s, firm announcement that ie will do his level best to obtain abour without considering comjetifcors unless they are able to show 'cry clearly that they can employ t to better purpose.