H—ll

Considerable success was also attained in meeting the heavy labour demands of the building industry, which received a proportion of total placements during the year greater than that of any other industry —viz., 13-3 per cent, of all placements made. (b) Hostels and Camps (1) Under the Employment Act, 1945, this Department is empowered to establish, maintain, and operate hostels and other residential or boarding establishments for workers. One of the Department's main functions is to provide an adequate supply of labour for industry and to promote the best use of available labour. (2) During the last few years the shortage of labour, acute throughout the country, has been accentuated in the main industrial areas. Lack of accommodation remains ,a most important factor in the inability to maintain full quotas of labour in these areas. In spite of the handicap of restricted building materials and the paramount importance of housing construction, combined with the non-availability of suitable vacant properties for purchase, progress has been maintained in providing additional accommodation for all five types of workers concerned, viz.— (i) Workers in selected industries. (ii) Immigrant workers. (iii) Miners. (iv) Junior staff of the Public Service, male and female. (v) Home aids. (3) Though considerable success has been attained in securing private accommodation for migrants on arrival it is nevertheless imperative, at least in the four main centres, that hostel accommodation be also available there to cope with the large drafts now arriving regularly. Additional provision urgently required for males in Wellington, Auckland, and Dunedin, and for both males and females in Lower Hutt to cope with the drafts expected late in 1949, is now being planned. (4) The male workers' camps set up during the war years still provide much-needed accommodation for 1,250 workers employed in selected industries in the three main industrial areas of Auckland, Wellington, and Hutt Valley, and continue to enable the Department to maintain a reasonably adequate supply of labour for the more important industries in those centres. Considerable improvement in the amenities in these camps are urgently desirable and will be carried out when conditions in the building industry permit. (5) Two hostels for miners which were in process of establishment a year ago have since been opened —i.e., at Huntly and Grranity. Two further ones at Ohura and Ohai are. nearing completion and will be opened early in the next financial year, while three more —i.e., at Granity, Blackball, and Denniston —are at present being planned. Accommodation is provided for both immigrant and local labour and has been effective in maintaining a high level of production in this important industry. (6) Hostel accommodation for junior cadets and shorthand-typists in the Public Service continues essential to maintain recruitment and plays an important part in the training schemes instituted for junior officers. The need for considerable expansion of this class of accommodation is pressing, and plans for extensions to existing hostels in Wellington and Christchurch and for an additional one in the Hutt Valley are completed. Two other hostels purchased in Wellington will be opened shortly. (7) Hostels are also maintained in Auckland and Wellington to accommodate 24 locally-recruited and immigrant home aids. (8) Thanks are due to the Y.W.C.A. for the co-operation and assistance given the Department in continuing to operate successfully, on the Department's behalf, women's wartime hostels for industrial workers in Wellington and the Hutt Valley respectively. As with the male workers' camps, much-needed accommodation is provided in these hostels for 370 women employed in selected industries of prime importance.

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