PLEA FOR BUILDERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 847, 16 December 1929, Page 11

PLEA FOR BUILDERS

MORE PUBLIC ESTIMATION WANTED ADDRESS TO ROTARIANS An appeal for the recognition of builders on a higher plane in publicestimation was offered this afternoon by Mr. James Fletcher, addressing the Rotary Club. Mr. Fletcher stated his confidence in the building trade as a field for qualified young men with necessary training in constructional engineering and building. “The builder—the artificer—is essentially a creator,” he said. “As a creator, he is a man who does things. The important part he plays in a community justifies more prominence for him in the public view-. “It is a fact that the building trade is the best barometer of a country’s prosperity.” Mr. Fletcher described the immense amount of detail work in preparing estimates for building contruction. In the future, he said, men of education and ability would be looked to in the filling of the positions of best builders. As in America at the moment, the universities would play their part in providing the essentials of training. With instruction in correct courses, a class of capable men for the important business of building would be produced. Builders, continued Mr. Fletcher, should not be regarded as of less importance than the men of the learned professions. In spite of the lack of recognition of a builder's work generally, to be a. builder was satisfying in looking back on achievements. Organisation played the greatest part of a builder’s work and many hazards had to be taken into account.