TRADESMEN FROM AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 149, 20 March 1939, Page 11

TRADESMEN FROM AUSTRALIA

Reply To Complaints

GRIEVANCES STATED TO BE GROUNDLESS Statement By Minister Complaints by three Australian workmen who recently arrived in New Zealand to accept work under the State housing scheme were replied to by the Minister of Housing, Mr. Armstrong, on Saturday. He said that reports he had obtained showed that the grievances were groundless, except perhaps in regard to accommodation, but steps had been taken to overcome that difficulty.

Mr. Armstrong said that the contingent in question had consisted ot' 37 men, and he paid a compliment to the standard of citizenship and craftsmanship which existed among them as a whole. Most of them on arival had set quietly about getting settled down and getting to work with their new employers. "Inevitably, however,” said the Minister, “there was the odd one or two who want everything done for them and are full of complaints about what is being done for them.

"For instance,” went on Mr. Armstrong, "there were only two bricklayers in the contingent. I don’t know which one it is who had been airing bis troubles in the Press, but I do know that' one of them confessed after being found employment that he was not a bricklayer at all, but had been at sea most of his time. Notwithstanding this admitted abuse of the assistance given, we found another employer willing to take him on as a bricklayer’s labourer. Sent To Contractor. "The other bricklayer is said to be a real tradesman and was sent on arrival to the contractor who had reported a vacancy. Evidently, however, he had in the meantime obtained a man from elsewhere. The Australian bricklayer was thereupon sent to another employer. Our last information was that he had reported there and had been engaged. The State Placement facilities are still at his disposal, and if any further difficulties have cropped up he has not reported them, except to the Press, if he is the one quoted. "Regarding the two carpenters, information at my disposal indicates that these men early after arrival sought legal advice with the object of getting out of their contract to work on Government housing jobs. They also claimed to be without money on arrival, but within a very short time after arrival, and before taking any employment, were talking about refunding the amount of their fares from Australia.

Mr. Hodgens, M.P., with whom I am in frequent communication by radio telephone and cable, assures nie that the extravagant statements attributed to him are entirely without foundation. I might mention that he is a practical builder and is perfectly familiar with conditions in the trade in New Zealand. It is beyond ordinary probabilities that he could have said anything of the kind laid at his door.

Purpose of Mission.

In fact one of the principal purposes of his mission is to secure sufficient Additional skilled men to avoid the necessity for excessive overtime and to make possible closer adherence to the 40-hour week. I am sure that we will have the wholehearted co-opera-tion of 99 per cent, of our fellowworkers from Australia in • attaining this object. The 1 per cent, who have, so little sympathy with the aims and achievements of labour in New Zealand that they are so soon after arrival the willing tools of those whose interest lies in breaking down the 40hour week would have been far better not to have come here at all. “My officers had already reported the fact that some of the men were having to pay more than they could comfortably manage for board and lodgings, and naturally the Government is taking care of that matter. In cases in which the Immigration Department has to send men to accommodation for which they will have to pay more than 35/- a week, the Government intends to pay the difference for a reasonable period till the men have been able to suit themselves better. The accommodation found by the Government on arrival of the men is, of course, only temporary, and the allowance will be payable only when the men are provided with a note from the department to the owner of the accommodation to that effect.”