School-Leavers’ Jobs

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31542, 2 December 1967, Page 12

School-Leavers’ Jobs

Sir,—The remarks of Messrs Shand and Stephenson on the back page today only too effectively dispose of G. G. Walker’s arguments on this subject. There Is nothing more dangerous to a country’s economic stability and the welfare of the individual than the conviction that anyone owes anyone else a living. I remember in England during the slump the ease with which school-leavers obtained boys’ jobs only to be thrown out at 18 when they commanded a man’s wage. In this country I had a job done for me by a capable apprentice. His employer charged me, on some precious pretext, double his original estimate. This tradesman was ultimately run out of the district by popular ostracism. The bleak fact remains that, though both these cases show the wickedness inherent in the system as exploited by employers, the young should not be featherbedded into believing themselves indispensable, when the future may show that they are nothing of the sort. Nor, in any circumstances, should they be given the dole.— Yours, etc., CARACTACUS. November 30,1967.