A Contribution To Industry

To anyone who thinks that the opportunity workshop in Bolt Road is used by the Nelson intellectually Handicapped Children's Society as a place for keeping young men and women amused and out of the way, these photographs will come as a surprise. inside the workshop, the intellectually handicapped are making a contribution - and a very real contribution - to industry in this province. Under the guidance of Mr Eric Causer, workshop manager, a small group of workers are labelling cans, making bread baskets and frames for apple presses. All the machinery used was designed and made by Mr Causer, and he has broken down the work to enable it to be done in easy stages. Each day, 500 cans of fish from the South Pacific Fish Cannery at Annesbrook are labelled. Sounds easy, but the firm demands that the labels should be put on precisely. With the aid of machines, the labels are stuck on with such precision that they do not vary by more than a millimetre. Similarly, the breadbaskets commence as sheets of steel mesh. They are cut out, shaped and welded by the workers. What has been accomplished in this workshop is little short of amazing.

Whil Ross Clark packs the cartons, Alison Dimmock, Eulene Delaney, Lynette Solly, Beth Delaney and Diane McKenzie, assisted by Mrs I. Anderson and Mrs B. Mordaunt (superintendents), label the cans.