WORKLESS BOYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 87, 13 April 1933, Page 9

WORKLESS BOYS.

EDUCATION FAULTY? EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE'S VIEW. PLACING OF OLDER LADS. The difficulty of finding employment for boys aged from 18 to 20 years was stressed by the retiring president of the Auckland Boys' Employment Committee, Mr. N.. G.' Gribble, in his annual report presented to the general meeting last night. ' ' Lads of-that age, he said, were apparently wanted for rarm work only if they were experienced, and then the wage was in most cases.inadequate. The commit-, tee had met boys with matriculation certificates, some even wilh university degrees, who were thoroughly disillusioned, arid with a little encouragement in the wrong direction would make first-class criminals. In few cases did employers inquire as to educational qualifications of the boys, and the committee was gravely concerned as to how far it should go in considering the educational preparation of boys passing through its hands. Educationalists did not seem anxious to meet the employers' requirements. Mr. A. J. Entrican remarked that when ho was a schoolboy in the North of Ireland sixty years ago, every second day's reading lesson was from an agricultural text-book. Some such system should be followed in New Zealand. The Government should also help those young men who had been brought upon farms to buy farms of their own. They would then be able to engage labour. If they saw no prospect of ever owning farms of their own they would not stay in the country. "Folly and Neglect." "It is obviously absurd," remarked Mr. D. Donaldson, "to bring up our boys through Plunket systems and Sunshine schools, and then when they reach the age when their characters are stamped for life, let them go to the dogs. We would be horrified if we could look ahead into the next generation and see what our folly and neglect have done." The neglect of New Zealand boys in favour of those from overseas was commented on by Mr. W. J. Holdsworth. "When the first' meeting was called to form this committee," he said, "some of those present boasted that they had brought boys from 13,000 miles away, under the Flock House scheme, but they would not do anything for their own kith and kin in New Zealand." He was glad that the committee had shown how New Zealand boys should be assisted. Policy for This Year. After his election as president, Sir Joseph Smith said that the St. John camps were doing much practical work in training boys, and during his term he hoped to see it extended, but at the same time the committee would do everything it could for boys who did not desire to go on to farms. Even the least of town jobs encouraged boys who were losing heart, for a boy was always proud of taking home his first wages. The president drew attention to the donation of £100 from the Auckland Savings Bank, which had closely watched the work of the committee during the past nine months, and had, by this donation, approved its proposals.