Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MAY 19, 1939. WORKERS AND PRODUCTION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 May 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MAY 19, 1939. WORKERS AND PRODUCTION.

A GOOD deal has been heard during the last, year or two A much of it in rather vague though tonns-about the industrial training of unskilled adult vOl . \ , rightly been contended that in this wa T J}®' 1 '|uctive.lferred from work that is only poorly or mdiiectly p oduei notably subsidised national and local fken fully productive employment, with benefit equally to the immediately concerned and to the Dominion.

If, however, any avpreeiable number of adult workers has been trained and transferred m this way, been heard about it. How many >\ onng ;\ e ’ .£ trades have the slump period from apprenticeship to , ainin since been enabled to commence or ,^ a ?® Are there older men, displaced from one skilled trade o, who ate b en nai led to establish themselves in ano her ami if so what are the numbers of these meh! The apparent absence of specific, information on these points is not encol ? iag l l " t ’; tate would be highly encouraging if Ministers were able •t t, tint within a <>'iven period so many unskilled workers na piffled, or we’re qualifying for. skilled emptoyme„ Ihe absence of any such statement obviously suggests that little anything of the kind is happening.

The broad position existing at l^entJn is that there is declared to be a serious shortage 01. skilled tradesmen and other skilled workers. At the same time, tl o sands of New Zealanders are engaged in largely unskilled wok, subsidised bv the State. The Minister of Labour (Mr Webb) announced the other day that the New Zealand Manuiaetmeis Federation had given its approval to suggestions made bj tie Government for the subsidising of adult labour apprenticed to various trades in secondary industry and that a c< } ! n^ ° unions affected and another of representatives ol emplojeis and unions are to be called shortly.

Meantime arrangements have been made to bllll « e drafts of tradesmen from overseas. Following on the nn citation of building tradesmen from Australia, some of them under contract to the Government and some of them coming on Jieii own account, a first batch has arrived o some i\ > building tradesmen whom it is proposed to bung out lo Great Britain. Yesterday it was reported from Sydney that a representative of the New Zealand Radways had engage! twenty-one tradesmen to be employed in the Railway Workshops and that if skilled men were offering he would en & a o e at least another hundred. In the extent to which the demand for skilled workers cannot be supplied within the Dominion, it is no doubt desirable that tradesmen should be brought m from overseas, but it is very necessary too that every possible elfort should be made to train for skilled work New Zealanders who are now less advantageously employed. The Minister of Labour, in his latest statement on the subject, declared that the training of our own adult labour was an absolute necessity. It was clear from the placed before him, he said, that sufficient young labour was not available to expand production, so that:- — From every angle it seems imperative that more men must be brought in from those classes of work that are generally c scribed as being unproductive and trained in industries. With all this there should be ready agreement and it must be hoped that the Minister will prosecute his plans with enterprise and make reasonably frequent public reports upon the results achieved. While the Minister spoke particularly of factory employment, an industry of which full account should be taken, where Ihe training of iidults now unskilled is concerned, is building. New Zealanders now less advantageously employed most certainly should be given’every opportunity of undergoing training as building workers. The building industry lends itself particularly well to the training of unskilled men, provided the trainees are possessed of a normal amount of natural aptitude and have an inclination for the work. .In many classes o: building work—not least where there are large numbers ol: cottages to be built—there is good scope for team operations in specialised sections, and on an average men trained in one section after another —ordinary industrial work being supplemented by a certain amount of technical instruction would soon be in a position to earn satisfactory wages for themselves unaided. There is scope here for transferring men from unskilled to skilled work which should on no account be neglected.