BUILDERS’ BAD YEAR

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 239, 29 December 1927, Page 13

BUILDERS’ BAD YEAR

LITTLE WORK IN CITY HOUSE SHORTAGE OVERTAKEN Reports from the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners state that this year has been the worst the union has experienced in the last 20 years. X>EGINNING with a spell of wet weather when what work was available was very difficult to get at. the trade has continued dull all the year. Following the wet weather, the height of the depression further spoiled the trade, and it soon became obvious also that any shortage of houses for the population had been overtaken and building had nothing to hope for from that quaretr. House? to rent had been, if not plentiful, at least a commoner sight t’/in for years past. Home-building, it is felt, offers no hope for the building trade for years. There has been during the year a large number of city business buildings begun, but they do not absorb the surplus of carpentering skilL In some of them, however, much con-crete-work and steel-work to be done, there is very little carpentering and joinery. in some of the recent buildings the only wooden fittings are thcdoors and picture-rails. The fillip to this class of buildings continues and the new year will see great activity in city buildings. But for the carpenters there is little to be expected in them. Where with a house to erect they can be at work on the spot practically next morning, with the mammoth city premises there is weeks of delving and framework before the wood-workers get anything to do.

At the same time the tone in union circles is hopeful. With the corner turned in the long lane of depression, a general improvement is anticipated.