JOBS FOR BOYS

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 50, 22 November 1932, Page 10

JOBS FOR BOYS

Wellington’s Campaign TO OPEN THIS WEEK “Back-to-Prosperity” Drive CARNIVAL MONTH AHEAD “Give Youth its Chance” is to be made a prominent community slogan during the coming month. Wellington’s Back-to-Prosperity Campaign will begin on Thursday, when the task of finding employment for a small army of waiting boys will lie tackled. Five hundred jobs are urgently needed, though twice that number could be filled after the school year has ended. Back-to-Prosperity Month is threefold in its object. First, there is the drive to assist youth, but linked with that is a co-operative effort to brighten business and encourage confidence. To-day in the city.there are not 500 jobs for boys simply waiting to be found. A large number must be made, and obviously the soundest and speediest way of making them is to create the need for them. Thirdly, the campaign is aimed at encouraging still further the preference for and the use of New Zealand-made goods. New Zealand manufacturing industries provide a potential avenue of employment for thousands of boys, but factory wheels must turn faster if this avenue is to be broadened. Encouragement must be given to those with capital for the establishment and extension of industries, and the creation of work A Precedent to Follow. The capital city lias a precedent to follow and a record to better. Recently a boy employment campaign was organised in Christchurch, with the result that more than 500 jobs were found or made. If that achievement can be equalled in Wellington it will mean that work of some kind will be giveA to practically every boy at present unemployed in the city. If the Christchurch total can be bettered, boys who are still at school because there is nothing else for them to do, and those who are leaving school in the normal course of events, will be numbered among the wage earners—and spenders—of the community. There is to be nothing haphazard about the coming campaign, which has been ushered in appropriately by Boys’ Week, and lias the added and valuable impetus to Happiness Week. Behind the major movement Is the Citizens’ Boy Unemployment Committee, headed by‘the Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, and associated with the campaign are organisations and individuals representing almost every section of the community. Back-to-Prosperity Month promises to be one of the largest and most vital efforts of its. kind promoted in Wellington for many years. A Round of Attractions. The organisers of the month, while depending upon citizens for the largest and most effective measure of support, are planning to attract to Wellington numbers of visitors and Christmas shoppers. Healthy holiday trade will mean a demand for the services of boys in a dozen and one capacities, and jobs thus secured will be kept and. improved if business is maintained. This part of the campaign is in the hands of the major attractions sub-com-mittee of the Citizens’ Committee. The organiser is Mr. R. P. Staples, and the activities already planned-include Special window displays, Street processions, Trade demonstrations, and A variety of public entertainments. In addition, appeals are being made to sports bodies and allied organisations whose co-operation will be of immense value to the sub-committee. The task of providing a month of attractions in a busy city is no light one, and will be much more successfully carried out if shared by all societies constituted for such purposes rather than if undertaken solely by an executive group. Slogans and .Badges. Among the activities planned by the publicity committee, at the head of which is Mr. W. Appleton, is the distribution of posters, bearing the slogans: “Put the Son into Business” and “Give Youth its Chance.” The campaign is to revolve round these twin .appeals. Unemployed boys are to sell official badges on which is printed: “Give Youth its Chance —Buy." The work of canvassing the business section of the city has already begyn, and will be redoubled on Thursday when the opportunities committee, headed by Air. I’. Myers, will be ready to enlist the aid of as many adult volunteers as offer their services. This side of the ciiiupaign is by no means new. The Citizens’ Committee, •supported by the. Y.M.C.A. and the . Wellington Rotary Club and acting through a committee of which Mr. R. H. Nimmo is the head, has been responsible for placing large numbers of boys in employment in both town aud country. Between Marell and October 31 a total of 378 boys were found work. 185 of the positions being in Wellington. Business M en Come Forward. At the end of last week 20 business men had offered their services to the opportunities committee, and other names were being received yesterday. Retired men closely acquainted with the city, and witli business firms and conditions, are wanted for this work, which also is being undertaken by the Wellington Headmasters’ Association. For the purposes of a personal canvas the city has been divided into eleven areas, which are as follow 1. Lambton Quay and intervening streets. „ . , 2. Featherston Street, Customhouse Quay. and intervening streets. 3. Willis Street, Manners Street, anil intervening streets. 4. Victoria Street, Jervois Quay, ami intervening streets. 5. Cuba Street and intervening streets. 6. Courtenay Place, Kent Terrace, Cambridge Terrace, 7. Wakefield Street, Cable Street, and intervening streets. 8. Tory Street, Taranaki Street, ami intervening streets. 9. Newtown district. 10. Thorndon Quay ■ 11. The Terrace and intervening streets. . To-morrow evening a meeting of those prepared to assist is to be held in the Y'.M.C.A., when the final details of the canvas will be prepared. Up to the present the Y.M.C.A. building has been the headquarters of boy employment, but for the purposes of the special campaign office accommodation has been secured at 110 Willis Street. “The important thing to remember is that employment' has to be found for this growing army of boys whether we have a Back-to-Prosperity Month or not.” said Mr. L. J. Greenberg, secretary of the Citizens’ Committee, yesterday. “The purpose of Back-to-Prosperity Month is to make this task easier, and to encourage trade and business to an extent that will make the employment of boys not only feasible and possible, but actually necessary.”

CITIZENS’ SYMPATHY Prime Minister’s Call to Aid Boys “The buyer is the real employer of labour,” declared the. Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) in making an appeal to all classes to support the “Back to Prosperity” movement. “No great cause, fundamentally designed to promote the good of the people, can be expected to succeed without the highest degree of co-operation of all individuals, whether they be responsible for the direction of business enterprises, of public and private services, or responsible as individuals to those in whose hands such direction is entrusted,” he said. “In the scheme for the creation of avenues of employment for the youth of the city of Wellington there is an opportunity for all citizens to give practical evidence of their desire to display their sympathetic co-operation. “I commend this scheme, which will be launched this month under the title of the ‘Back-to-Prosperity Month’ as one which in sound principle, in earnest intention, and in the method of its operation, will, it is hoped, do much toward increasing the volume of trade in Wellington, and therefore tend to promote the object for which it is launched. “I appeal to all classes of the Wellington community to enlist in the movement to create openings for boys. I appeal to those who can help in a private manner to examine their possibilities in this direction. I appeal to the general public to provide that very desirable support by a practical application of the axiom that ‘The buyer is the real employer of labour.’ ” MANUFACTURERS’ SUPPORT ■■ ■ I The Wellington Manufacturers’ Association is giving its hearty support to the “Back-to-Prosperity Month.” Members have been informed that the executive heartily supports the movement, and appeals to members to make every endeavour to give work to at least one boy during the coming month. Retailers are making special displays of New Zealand-made goods.