AGES AND WAGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 296, 15 December 1933, Page 5

AGES AND WAGES.

BOYS , PROSPECTS.

COMPETITION FOR WORK.

HEADMASTER'S COMMENT. "The usual number of boys will be closing their school careers to-night and will be looking for their niches in the bigger world," said Mr. F. W. Gamble, headmaster of the Mount Albert Grammar School, at the annual prize-giving last evening. "Although the prospects of finding openings are not so black as before, the competition will be strenuous and the standard of efficiency demanded will be high. Lacking personal influence, a boy has to show something out of the ordinary if he is to win his way through the dense ranks of competitors and satisfy the strict requirements that can be demanded. With the advantage all on the side of the employers it is reasonable for those 'who have at heart the interests of the boys to plead continually for some concessions in return.

"While granting that the position of placing boys is not as acute as last year, I deplore the stubborn blindness to the axiomatic fact that increased standard of attainments means increased age. The Public Service has been forced to concede this point, and is now opening its doors to young men on the qualification test only, positions being offered in turn to University students, entrance scholars, holders of higher leaving certificates, and lastly to those whose credential is a pass in matriculation. But among commercial firms there is still a definite reluctance to grant the concession in age which circumstances have made rightful and imperative. (

"False Standard of Value." 1 /'The present situation, too, holds the I danger- of creating a false standard of the value of the services of boys. In the adult world these standards of value of labour have been badly shattered, for a large section they simply do not exist, and the consequences seen day by day make us fear for the young men upon whom much of the burden of redemption will rest. Underpaid service leads to half-hearted service, and the low rates of salary that boys can command today are not calculated to make enthusiastic workers of them. There ie room for investigation into the nature of the duties carried out by boys and the remuneration given, for there appears to be a certain amount of exploitation of boy labour. There is the boy undertaking the full responsibilities of a man's job at 10/ a week, and another, qualified for the higher leaving certificate, engaged as a salesman at 9/6 a week, very little more thari what a [newspaper runner can earn. The latter case came to my notice on the same day on which I was trying to find a boy for farm work at 15/ a week with full board in an excellent home. Subsidy Suggested. "These may be unusual cases, but, outside banks and insurance offices, where promotion runs in a regular scale, the best of firms are unable to treat their-young employees as liberally as is necessary to evoke the type of service the country needs. The very mention of subsidisation is unpleasant, but it remains, go far as I can see, as the only remedial measure capable of speedy eflect. I am certain that employers would gladly meet the Government more than half way in a scheme that would the ideals of purpose and ambition with which the boys go out into the world. "Despite the stern challenge of the day to confidence and ambition, the victory is still with the boys. In some respects the seniors to-day have developed a new type; they are older in their way of looking at things, they are more- serious of mind and more versatile than their predecessors, and still just as imbued with the determination to get from life what it owes,to them. In daily contact with t'ie older boys. I believe there is growing up an appreciation of the need to shape their lives so that they will be ready to meet the call of social service. I know that the boys measure up to standard."