ACTION URGED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 167, 16 July 1936, Page 10

ACTION URGED.

POSITION OF YOUTHS.

"TREATED VERY BADLY."

MANUFACTURER REPLIES,

Tlie position of unemployed youths who arc likely to be adversely affected by the new industrial legislation, is again emphasised by Mr. D. Henry, president of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Association, in a letter to the "Star." Mr. Henry urges that a remedy should be found for the position without delay.

''I feel that those lads are being treated very badly, and have not received the consideration from the Government which they were entitled to when the recent legislation was brought down," he writes. "Their special case should have been taken care of simultaneously with other legislation. The trades union secretary who commented on my views, puts forward the somewhat wearisome excuse that 'the legislation could not be expected to make provision for every aspect of the'case,' and we can concede that point, but it is surely not asking too much that legislation should take care of an aspect of the matter which is vital to the future of hundreds, if not thousands, of those young men. "Thrown Out of Work." "The position is that they are being thrown out of work when in many cases they were fully employed and earning decent wages, and any legislation which takes their living and future prospects away from them is not good legislation. To make excuses for the promoters is poor comfort to the sufferers, and a remedy should be found for the position without delay. There are probably very few people who question the Government's good intentions, but someone once tritely remarked that the road to the nether regions was paved with good intentions, and I have yet to learij that good intentions without good practice will take us anywhere else now. "May I suggest to our Labour friends that they should now trim up the ragged ends of the legislation that has been passed before they rush through any more—one job at a time and that well done is still a good motto, and they could very well practise it now and thereby prove that they are not only idealists but practical ones—which is much more important. "Ridiculous Remarks." "The remarks made by the trades union secretary about employers robbing youths whom they employed during the depression are so entirely ridiculous as to hardly .call for comment —but I have no hesitation in saying that they are wholly ifntrue. It is not a crime to employ boys and thousands of parents were thankful to get their sons off the streets and into employment, and there were hundreds of employers who gave those lads work—not because they needed them, but because they were anxious to be of the utmost help to both the parents and the lads. "Mr. Trades Union Secretary is out of touch with real social and labour conditions, and I am sure he is also out of touch wjth the views of the. leaders of. the Labour movement, and if he wants'-to l?e of the utmost service to the community as a whole and not just a particular section of it, he should proceed quickly to get a better grasp of the present problems than he evidently possesses at present."