DETAILS LACKING

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 254, 23 July 1936, Page 8

DETAILS LACKING

Placement Office Dilemma RETICENT APPLICANT Officials of the Lower Hutt Employment Bureau were perplexed yesterday afternoon by the unusual problem presented by an applicant, who, while evidently accustomed to making himself useful in the garden, would not give his address or that of his last employer. Yet he seemed normally intelligent, sturdy and well nourished, and there was nothing in his demeanour to suggest that he was in any waj eccentric. He had entered unhesitatingly and had taken his place with the others awaiting interviews with the Placement Officer, Mr. K, D. Whelan.

Before the interview was over, however, the Placement Officer had confessed to himself that during the time the placement scheme had been in operation he had never had to deal with a more uncommunicative applicant. Yet he could not attribute this to shyness or embarrassment or any of the factors usually associated with a man’s unwillingness to discuss his pas_t. The position was unusual, so it was met in an unusual way. The employment seeker was invited to participate in afternoon tea, in the hope that he would thaw, but although he joined in heartily enough the experiment was a failure. The officials formed the opinion that he had been a good worker and had been well thought of by his last employer. Further than that they could, not go, and they cannot check up his antecedants —for he was a magpie. <• Mr. Whelan is anxious to find his home address, or alternatively, to hear promptly from a prospective employer.