YOUTH IN INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 297, 16 December 1935, Page 6

YOUTH IN INDUSTRY.

SUBSTITUTION FOR A DU WI

(To the Editor.) The reported intention of the Mini.t Employment and Labour to fix mi - * wages for men and women in the v'"* industries will have certain repercussionf 1 " 5 ' of these will surely be, unless steps are') to prevent it, the increased substitnf:« boys and girls for adult workers. It hi. V' the custom during recent years to absorb • 1 1 industries —both primary and secondly large number of young workers, manv whom are mere children who would / better economic conditions, be still at saT The breakdown of the apprenticeship laws '" the pressure of adverse circumstances parents have faciliated the exploitation youth in the interests of profit-making n ill-advised placing of a large number of on farms as a solution to juvenile unemor ment has resulted in the establishment 6 r very low ruling rate of wages which has ml/ farm work unsuitable for men, though ft* farmers blame the better conditions and mi of relief camps. This wholesale substitute of adolescents for adults in industry l opened the door for many evils, the chief of which are overwork and lack of care for tt safety and health of the young whom there seems to be a never-ending i*!. .ply. Unless the whole question is gone mt and minimum wages and maximum hours fita for boys and girls there will be further sacri fice of youth. Placing a restriction on the number of young workers per ratio to adoHj in certain industries and fixing a leaving age are two methods of abating the present evil and preventing further abmej Of course, this would necessitate making it financially possible for parents to keep their children at school till they are fit for work, or the institution of factory schools where young people can earn and learn at the east time. I have heard of a Motherhood Endowment Bill which the present Prime Minister brought before Parliament several years ago, Perhaps if this bill is now made law " victims of a system which regards - youth it ; either cannon fodder or as cheap labour power will find New Zealand more fit to live ii YOIWG WORKii :