LABOUR SCARCITY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 300, 2 October 1935, Page 8

LABOUR SCARCITY

POSITION 1 IN GREAT BRITAIN.

RESULT OF THE DOLE

(Special to the “Guardian”). AUCKLAND, October 1

“Although there are about 2,000,000 registered unemployed in Great Britain there is a real scarcity of labour in many districts,” said Sir Harold Beauchamp on his return by the Remuera. “This is especially noticeable in the country, where farmers require men to as;sist in harvesting. In these districts there are many hands available, but they prefer to live on the dole instead of working. “Can one wonder at that, when a family of sia—father, mother and four adult children —can draw no less than £3 15s a week? The same condition applies to domestic servants. Today in England, Scotland and Wales there must be hundreds of thousands of people who have never done a single day of honest labour in their lives, nor are they likely to do so under existing conditions. With the improvement in industrial conditions, it is apparent there will be a scarcity of skilled labour and manufacturers will suffer.”

To prevent a gigantic army of inepts, Sir .Harold suggested that children should be drafted into technical schools after they had passed the fifth or sixth standard.' In these technical schools girls could be taught domestic service and boys useful trades. “No doubt this would entail a heavy charge on the State,” concluded Sir Haroid, “but surely it would be better to face that expenditure now than to wait until these children attain their majority, when, being unfitted for any occupation, they would be entitled to draw a dole of 12s 6d a week for the rest of their lives.”