RESTRICTED VOCATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 187, 10 August 1925, Page 9

RESTRICTED VOCATIONS.

ONE HUNDRED PLASTERERS.

HUNDREDS OF SOLICITORS

AXD MEDICAL MEX.

Do you know that if you required a"| plasterer to put the finishing touches to a > building to-day you would very probably bo unable to get such a tradesman? Put] if you felt inclined to have a peep into • the future and learn whether you will go a sea trip, have money left you by a ■ rich uncle in Spain, or some such coun- j try: or. better still, if you are going to ' marry a man whom you are in love with, thoufh. perhaps, you don't know it —this will be after much trouble with a dark man—there are any amount of places where you can go and have a glance at the crystal, or a shuflle of the cards. Admittedly nobody wants to earn a living at what might be best described as "hard work."' but. even so. it is astonishing how a preference is shown for callings which in the matter of pay i and general working conditions do not favourably compare with others. For instance in Auckland to-day there are ■ 120 plasterers arid 150 bricklayers, all • getting plenty of work, good wages, and j short hours, and particularly are plas- ' terers hard to get. On the other hand. J there are over 400 solicitors registered ! on the roll of the Law Society, -md at a low estimate the number of students in each office might be set at three. This means that there are at least 1200 j young men studying law, while the apprentices to the plastering trade would I not be more than a dozen. j The members of the medical profession in the city and suburbs, including those j at the Auckland Hospital, number .just: on 10. just as do the plasterers, but it I costs a lot of money to become a qua 1i- j tied medical practitioner, and doctors! will tell you that in many cases they do ! not get paid for services rendered. Unlike solicitors, they do not often get paid in advance, and if the total amount owing to the medical profession of Auckland could be ascertained, it would j come to a pretty t-i— — „*?__, Tlie two callings whirh appeal to lada leaving school are law and engineering, with the result that both are swamped. | The engineering trade has more apprentices than any other trade, but the opportunities to learn offer more scope; than iii. say, prastering, bricklaying, or. carpentering. There are so many small j jobs in an engineering shop that an, apprentice can do. whereas in the case j of a plasterer, the latter is paid good money and the employer expects him to earn it. It does not pay to train an apprentice, because the work is really casual, and a man is here to-day and somewhere else next week. To teaeli a lad the trade would necessitate much time being devoted by the journeyman, and few employers would allow this. It is quite n different proposition to the study of the law. or the learnincr of a trade like bootmaking, and with the limited opportunities a lnd has. it is not surprising to find so few plasterers and bricklayers.