EMPLOYMENT OF BOYS

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 261, 3 November 1928, Page 8

EMPLOYMENT OF BOYS

EFFECT OF RESTRICTION OF TRAINING

(To the Editor.)

Instead of using the term "State training farms vour correspondent "Plough" wo>.,; have done better had he said '"State institr tions" or "workhouses," where the sons of nie;. city workers who are not permitted to become artisans might be housed, fed and arraj ed iii discarded clothing and be tiained undei eoi.. pulsion to provide cheap labourers for 1 lie farmers. "Plough" touches 011 a danger win. ,1 Reform seems to have ignored during the whole of its term in power, doubtless with the idea of placating labour; I refer to tie checking of the development of our secondary industries by restricting the training of oui youths at such, even though they might e\entually be forced to tramp the countryside, glad to do a dav's work for a meal and a night s shelter in the stable, if not driven off by the farmer's dogs as undesirables. I wonder that fathers and'"mothers, seeing this hopeless prospect before so many of our children, tolerate its advocates, either Labour 01* i.eform, as leaders. In .great measure the present slump is due to the deliberate thwarting of our manufactories and industries by the restriction 011 the training, of artisans. The amount ol" capital now 011 fixed deposit in the banks and being invested abroad is sure evidence of want of confidence in our industries. We cannot to-day hope to compete With imports simply because in our factories discipline has been subverted, wages are forced up and production is limited whenever business offers, through lack of efficient artisans —the result of preventing our sons from freely participating in our industries. It is only by the fullest use of our population and the free, wise and unrestricted training of our youth that industry can progress, or, indeed, even survive. Arbitrary restriction has stifled our enterprises, and, in spite of import duties, has exposed us to the unrestricted productions of cheap foreign labour. The greatest betrayal which has ever been perpetrated 011 the workers and the State has been the demand by Labour leaders for the suppression of our children and the acquiescence in it by those who knew to what it must eventually lead. FATHER.