LABOUR SHORTAGE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 461, 1 July 1937, Page 2

LABOUR SHORTAGE

STATE HOUSING SCHEME Tenders For Thousand Houses Press Association—Copyright. Wellington, June 39. Evidence of the extent to which activities of the Department of Housing construction are contributing and are likely to contribute towards the solution of the unemployment problem is made apparent in a study of ;he figures made available by th? Parliamentary Under-Secretary of Housing, Mr J. A. Lee. Mr Lee said that up to a fortnight ago there were engaged in actual housing construction 918 employees. ‘These men are engaged on actual onstructional work and the figures ■ ake no cognisance of men engaged n albad tHades such as the manufacure of bricks and tiles and pipes ’.nd stoves and those engaged in getting timber out of the bush and makng concrete assessories and so on. The Department wLs commencing to call for tenders with greater .peed,” said Mr Lee, and it was prob *.bte that when the point at which the programme contemplated by the Go/rnment. w. s attained there would be no fewer than 4000 employees engaged on actual building construction. To that number could be added at least an equal number engaged in he preparation of necessary m*aterials. Construction had so far been ■started only at Dunedin, Christhurch, Wellington, the Hutt, Johnsonville, Auckland, Palmerston North and Wanganui, and in some of these places work was being held up owing to a shortage of skilled labour, j Tenders had been called! for 1081 i houses to date but construction was ' >nly likely to start on the majority ; «;f these during the next few months