AT WHAT AGE?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 226, 23 September 1936, Page 7

AT WHAT AGE?

BASIC WAGE PROBLEM. DIVERSITY OF FACTORS. TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The age at which the basic wage should apply was discussed by the council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, following a request from a city firm employing a large staff for a definition of the council's attitude on the question. Mr. M. G. C. McCaul said that a man trained as a doctor did not reach his full capacity and prime until he was 30 or 33 years of age? whereas a man on pick and shovel work was at his prime at 21. He said the age should vary with the trade or profession. Mr. C. J. B. Norwood, president of the chamber, said he had in mind that there was a great group of young men, the product of the slump, who were now getting towards the period when the basic wage should apply, but who had not had a hope in the world of being useful except at pick and shovel work. Some of those boys had all the ability, if given the opportunity, to make a future for themselves and climb out of the rut into brain work or skilled handicraft. Mr. Norwood suggested referring the question to the Employers' Association.