MEN FOR INDUSTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1939, Page 7

MEN FOR INDUSTRY

EIGHT THOUSAND FROM PUBLIC WORKS REPORTED PROPOSAL BY GOVERNMENT. PROBLEM FOR MANUFACTURERS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. A proposal that 8000 men should be taken from public works and placed into industry in six weeks has been made by the Government to the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation. This was revealed by the president of the federation (Mr H. B. Duckworth), when he spoke at a meeting of the Canterbury Association last night. Mr Duckworth said 30,000 men were on the Government’s payroll on'public works and on the No. 13 scheme. It was his opinion that the well from which these men were being paid was drying up. The federation had conferred with the Government on three occasions and had been asked to put 8000 men into industry in six weeks. The federation, had been asked how many men could be employed and under what conditions the men could be absorbed. At times it appeared that the Government was asking manufacturers to get the country out of its difficulties. The problem was so big that the association should convene a special meeting to deal with it. The conditions under which an increased labour supply could be absorbed, had to be determined. Whether the Government would accede to the requests of manufacturers was yet another matter.