Juvenile Unemployment.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20736, 22 December 1932, Page 10

Juvenile Unemployment.

We print tijis morning a summary of the report on juvenile unemployment prepared for the Government by two members of the House of Representatives, Mr A. E. Ansell and Sir S. G. Smith. It is a report which everyone will read with interest and anxiety, for unemployment among hoys and youths ia more harmful socially than any other consequence of the depression. " Un- " employment for them," the Committee points put, "is more than loss of "earning power; it is the serious Joss "of the opportunity to acquire skill, " diligence, and love of toil at that " period in their lives when " they should he ♦trained in industry " and their characters moulded to meet "life's difficulties. ..." If the depression is not to bequeath to the cpuntry a disillusioned and embittered generation, more will have to be done than is being done now to prevent boys who have Just" left school from feeling that the existing economic system has no place for them. The problem, as the Committee rightly insists, is one for society rather than for the State. To provide some form of direct State charity for unemployed boys would be to substitute one evil for another. The Government must, of course, take steps to see thftt the problem is being tackled; an<J it must bo prepared to help, if necessary, with funds and expert advice. But the initiative must come from voluntary local organisations and every citizen must be made to realise he has a responsibility in the matter. Only by this means will the personal touch lacking in any Sfate scheme bp provided; and only by this means mil there be created an organisation sufficiently flexible to deal with the problem in all its many aspects. In Christchurch, fortunately, such a local organisation already exists apd has done much both to cope with juvenile unemployment and to impress upon individnal citizens the seriousness of the problem. The Boys Employment Committee of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce and other bodies working with it have accomplished mnch ifl the last twelve months; but it ia depressingly certain that in the npxt twelve months they will be asked to accomplish more. They can take confidence from the fact that other soeial endeavour of recent years has aroused as much sympathy or support.