FUTURE TRADESMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 43, 21 February 1927, Page 10

FUTURE TRADESMEN.

■ ■ ■ DIFFICULT TO PLACE BOYS. PROSPECTS NOT BRIGHT. Recently publicity was given to the fact that of over 200 lads in Auckland who had finished their schooling and who were desirous of being apprenticed to a trade, only a dozen or so were accommodated. These figures were taken from a list of lads compiled at the local office of the Labour Department where boys anxious to be apprenticed w«re invited to enter their names. The position as revealed caused a good deal of comment, but practically nothing has been done to bring about an improvement and the problem of placing boys in employment, which will be an asset to them through life, is no small one. Apparently the position which obtains in Auckland applies elsewhere because the parent of a lad, being unable to place his boy here, wrote to Wellington thinking there might be an opening for an apprentice to the carpentering or joinery trades. The reply he received from the National Secretary of the N.Z. Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners did not hold out much hope. Very clearly it was stated that Wellington, like other cities, had its unemployed, and daily men were calling looking for work of any kind. As with other trades there were a number of carpenters idle, and he could not advise any lad wasting money in train fares going to Wellington in search of work. "What is going to happen this winter is hard to say," adds the secretary, "but the prospects are far from bright. There will have to be a drastic change soon, but how it is to be brought about it is difficult to comprehend."