£10,000 A YEAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 84, 9 April 1925, Page 5

£10,000 A YEAR.

A LONDON CONTROVERSY. ARE TALENTED YOUTHS UNRECOGNISED? LONDON, March 2(5. According to Mr. John Lawrie. managing director of Whitelcy's (Universal Providers), who began as a draper's apprentice, in a small provincial shop, big businesses have scope for men worth a salary of £10,000, but are unable to find them.

"The Daily Sketch," which interviewed heads of big firms, finds these jobs are will-o'-the-whisps. Youth, knocking at' the gate and anxious for a chance to show the stuff of which he is made, is unable to find an outlet for his energies.

Sir Herbert Morgan, chairman of Mac Fisheries, declares that there would be plenty of talented young men available if given scope, and opportunity. Some elderly leaders of commerce would have got nowhere if they had had to begin in these days of keener competition.

"If they can't find men capable, of filling big posts," he said, "they are deficient in judgment and initiative and unworthy of the huge salaries they are drawing. It is useless for the head of a big business to sit in his chair and lament that he can't find young men worthy of holding £10,0 C») * jobs. Does he expect them to drop from the skies ? If they did, I <lo not expect he would recognise them. It is the duty of the heads of big businesses to attract young men of marked capacity. They ought to possess the instinct for spotting talent."

Mr. W. Reith, managing director of the British Broadcasting Co., Ltd., says that older business men often regard able youngsters with suspicion. A common fault in big businesses is the placing of young men in watertight compartments, instead of giving them an opportunity for all-round experience. Sir Edward Manville, vice-chairman of the Federation of British Industries, said: "There is only a limited number of highly-paid posts and I am not aware of any £10,000 job which is vacant. I know of an industry that would be willing to pay £20,000 a year to the rightman. It is not the question of a vaaancy, hut of the opportunity to create a post worth the salary. * Employers would not risk appointing to such a post a man with insufficient experience."