APPRENTICES IN ELECTRICAL TRADES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 50, 28 February 1923, Page 9

APPRENTICES IN ELECTRICAL TRADES.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—A copy of the by-laws of the Auckland Power Board regulations has just come to hand, and on perusal we find that the public (or the trade) receive absolutely no consideration on one of the most vital questions, viz., boy labour. According to the wording of clause 3, apprentices can still carry on as in the past, providing a licensed journeyman is on the job, there being no proportion of apprentices to journeymen. At the present time it is the practice to employ two and three apprentices on a job with (without in some cases) one licensed journeyman. Surely the Power Board has overlooked this most vital provision, not only in the interests of the public but also in an endeavour to uplift the trade from its present position. One apprentice to each licensed working journeyman should be the proportion which exists practically all over New Zealand—and the Power Board's inspectors should be given full power to see that such is earned out. At the present time the public very often pays journeymen's rate of pay for boy labour. Very well. Let us turn to clause 5. Surely the Power Board is not going to re-issue licenses to men who now hold master and journeymen's licenses issued by the City Council, but have never served an apprenticeship of one day to the trade, much less five years. What with boy labour and men flooding the trade with absolutely no experience, I think that it's about time the Power Board protected the public from unskilled workmanship. We have, I I*. lieve, one man in Auokland who was for ten years the workers' representative on a southern control board for electricians. Surely the experience gained would help our Power Board and put tbe whole thing on a sound foundation, as exists in, say, Wellington and Christchurch.—J am, etc, JOURNEYMAN. February 23, 1933.