MORE WORK FOR BOYS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22319, 5 February 1938, Page 14

MORE WORK FOR BOYS

Applications for Farm Employment SCHOOL ATTENDANCE NOT TO BE AFFECTED Though the employment position is the best for years, this will not deter youths from returning to school if circumstances warrant their return, said Mr A . L. Pugh, officer in charge of the Boys Employment Bureau, when inquiries were made yesterday. Parents were realising the loss suffered by boys without a secondary education, he added. , , During the last three weeks he had interviewed many boys who left school last year. Most were youths between 16 and 18 with perhaps three years’ secondary education. A few younger boys were applying for work, but in their cases the parents could not afford further training. , , Placements by the bureau for the first three weeks of January showed a considerable increase on those for a similar period last year, 89 boys being found positions against 70. Permanent positions provided this year numbered 52, or six more than in the preceding period. A fair proportion of the openings were in industrial and commercial work, he said. Office boys were in demand. Youths who had passed matriculation had no difficulty in finding clerical positions. More boys were applying for farm work than previously, reported Mr H. V. Green, though there were not enough to fill all the vacancies. As farmers were needing more boys than in former years the employment position had not greatly improved, and it was almost impossible to keep up with the demand. The award wages largely accounted for the desire of many for farm work, said Mr Green. The conditions now offering were an inducement to go on the land, especially where the youths meant to save money. Some, however, had found it impossible to enter trades in town because of physical or mental deficiency. Care was necessary in these cases to ensure against unsuitable and inexperienced hands being placed on farms. Few of the applicants wished to become farmers, said Mr Green. In the majority of cases they regarded the work as experience for other occupations such as woolclassing and stock agency.

smoothed out and obliterated? Is this conservatism prophetic? I will mention three features which impressed me as favouring a better understanding between North and South. . Though the cost of living is. higher in the Free State, many Northerners when they retire go south to live. There is a jollier life, a more genial climate, and better culture in Dublin than Belfast. The population of Belfast at last census showed a drop of about 30,000, while Dublin showed a sufficient gain to become once again the most populous city in Ireland. There will be more travelling and social intercourse between North and South in the future. One of the old cries of the North was, “Home Rule means Rome Rule.” There was a fear of religious persecution and the submergence of Protestantism. This fear has been dispelled in the Irish Free State. The experience of the Southern Protestants may in time allay the fears of the North.

The economic position, too, I think may improve. There used to be a difference of outlook and interest between the industrial North and the agricultural South. The Northern businessman thought the Southerners too jovial and easygoing ever to be a success at business. Now he is beginning to wonder if he may not have to revise his opinion. He sees factories springing up all over the South, while his own are languishing. He sees new industries started by government encouragement while his two Governments under which he lives can do little to solve unemployment except by a rearmament policy. As a businessman he has a new respect for southern enterprise. With the industrial advance of the South, it will have more community of economic interest with the North. Factors Against Union But. on the other hand, there are factors mitigating strongly against a union. Mr de Valera will have to modify his policy in at least two respects if he wishes to gain enthusiasm for a united Ireland, even among those whose sentiments are with him. One is his policy of compulsory Irish in the Free State schools. The Northerner does not possess that enthusiasm for all things Gaelic which would make him want to learn Irish. He fears that under a union such a policy would be forced upon him—and since Irish is compulsory for Civil Service examinations, he sees a useful and lucrative career closed to his children. The other is the tariff wall. The Belfast manufacturer has a world market. No self-sufficiency policy can satisfy his linen output or his shipbuilding. Nor will the Ulster farmer want a tariff against his fat cattle. He does not envy the experience of his southern brother. He does not want to be forced to alter his traditional ways of farming. It will be interesting from this point of view to see the outcome of the present conversations between the Irish and English Governments.

To sum up, I do not think “reintegration” will be accomplished yet awhile. There are certain forces making for closer co-operation and identity of interest, but prejudice and passion must be given time to die down A younger generation which did not live through the bitterness of the “bad times ' must arise. On the other hand the longer the problem is postponed the more set each Government will beconie in its routine, the more tangled the administrative red and green tape an m deeper any cleavage of policy! To abolish the border by blowing it UP as was attempted on the occasion of the visit of King George VI to Belfast last July) is, not the, way That attempt embarrassed both sides, for custom-houses on. both sides were attacked Two can play at fireworks—and unfortunately in Ireland it is frequently the extremist who gains the reins of government. There has been Tw gunpowder in Irish history That policy has failed. Where are the genial lovable Irishmen of goodwill on both sides of the border’ The future of Ireland is in their hands.