The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ABU INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun TUESDAY JULY 15, 1941. MANPOWER AND THE WAR EFFORT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 165, 15 July 1941, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ABU INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun TUESDAY JULY 15, 1941. MANPOWER AND THE WAR EFFORT

JHE opening yesterday of the Government's first training school for boot

operatives, and the remarks to-day by the Dominion president of the Farmers Union on the subject of manpower in relation to the war effort, draw attention to a matter deserving of the close attention of rarhament in the forthcoming session. Advocacy of the necessity of a lon s *r working week in war-time has customarily brought from Government spokesmen the reply that the Industrial Emergency Council is doing everything needed, for if the council is convinced bv evidence that the need exists it makes an order accordingly. This kind cf reply is more plausible than convincing. One of its weaknesses was pointed out by Mr. Mulholland, who remarked that under the present procedure the council acts "only when an industry can show that it is in trouble." "The circumstances of to-day," said Mr. Mulholland require that every industry shall work with a minimum of workers so as to make available the greatest possible new manpower to those industries which are hampered by shortage of labour." He suggested that the function of the council should be varied, so that, instead of deciding that an industry cannot meet the demands made upon it without an extension of hours, the council should be called on to decide that extended hours will not enable an industry to increase production or carry .on with fewer employees, "and except in those cases at least a 44-hour week shall be worked."

that . B ,W 1 "! 1, appears to go to the heart of the matter. The fact bo weii P T a ,S,-i £ d tH Stry, includin g both employers and workers m£ dloMvl ~J* h P™Be™ conditions should not. in war-time, be «™ «*'u The t ' uestlon is whether some of its employees, and perhaps Mriv«*«?i mana S e »nent an <* its plant, too. could not be employed more advantageously in the national interest if they were transferred to another industry, more essential. When there are v™ ndustries md Pvfn ShOrt " h^ ded> a ? d others IGSS essential carrying on as usual £i*hJT din S Product on, tben the Dominion's war effort is less ?tV ff 7i° denmls ' ex P lana tions or assurances will dispose 01 tne tact. Perhaps the greatest need of all is a recoenition that tho problems of shortages of labour, whether they are due to a glneral Sf or to maldistribution, will not solve themselves nor wSf thev grow ess acute. As the war goes on they can only become more acute will Vhl S? f t V 9 isd -? m f ~ r lhe Oovemment is to look ahead. How long cast thi7 thJ £nfn T t he i G ° vernm ent d O e S not know, but it knows, at icabt, that the conflict is far more likely to be long than short It knows also the industries in which, whether the war be long or short production must be kept going, the industries in which workers and .skilled workers, will certainly be needed. Its duty therefore is to mike n!L1 Btl £ ate " aS eXaClly as circ "nistance S will permit of thl manpower needs in one year, two years, and even three years from now and so o shape Us course that those needs will be filled At the end of this w«.K r . boys will be leaving the schools to take enpovmm some will be tempted by high wages to leave before they should A ESh P ° l'?' VVOUId prOVid - e that a of these boys should be »H °E£TT n *r 1= ni vii:!£i occupation in 1942. What has to be realised is that skilled workers cannot be produced at a placement office. They can be produced hv imlSfted Ut t,aining mUSt begin ,ong b * fore L