TOO MANY JOBS?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 797, 18 October 1929, Page 8

TOO MANY JOBS?

MR. FURKERT A BUSY MAN HARBOUR BRIDGE INQUIRY TBE SLVS Parliamentary WELLINGTON, Thursday. A strong protest againat tn, Engmeer-m-Chief of the Public Works Department. Mr. F. vv Furkert. being appointed a m em ber of the Auckland Harbour Bridge Commission was made in the House of Representatives todiv by Mr. J. S. Fletcher (Grey Lynn! He claimed that Mr. Furkert held too many positions at present, and that the creation of another, - V e n if only temporary, would interfere with his work. He took the strongest possible ception, lie said, to the appointment of Mr. Furkert to the commission He cast no reflection on his abilitv but wished to point out that alre.a. Mr. Furkert was Under-Secretar, L the Public Works Department chief marine engineer, chairman of the Main Highways Board, chairman of the Engineers’ Registration Board , member of the Office Accommodation Board and a member of the Local Government Loans Board. v This multiplicity of jobs must affect his work, able though he undoubted!, might be. Mr. Fletcher pointed out the state of affairs at Arapuni and Mangahao, and said that be was not reflecting on Mr. Furkert. but it was humanly impossible for him to do the job. The commission probably would be sitting for a week or two. What would happen to his departments? if they ran themselves, why was he secretary? Things were becoming ludicrous The Government bad had fair warn" ing of the attitude of members on the subject, which had been brought up first by Mr. G. C. Black (Motuekai in the Address-in-Reply. The Government should withdraw Mr. Furkert from the commission and let him get on with his jobs. Mr. H. G. R. Mason (Auckland Suburbs) supported Mr. Fletcher, and said that the number of positions occupied by Mr. Furkert slowed up his work. From the other two members of the commission, both with long experience of shipping, one would think that the bridge was for shipping and not for road traffic. He could not understand this, and thought that a town planner should have been the first placed on the list. In reply, the Minister said that his difficulty was to refuse the number of requests from local bodies which wanted Mr. Furkert to report on various undertakings for them. If the opinion of the local bodies counted for anything, Mr. Furkert’s services were very valuable indeed to the country. The Minister himself had all confidence in the engineer-ln-chief.