The Dominion WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1944. YOUTH AND THE FUTURE

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 56, 29 November 1944, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1944. YOUTH AND THE FUTURE

It may be that the exceptional conditions ruling have accentuated the competition, discussed at a vocational guidance meeting in Dunedin between the Public Service and private business for youthful employees, but vital issues are involved and should have careful attention. People who have studied the position are of the opinion that possibly the trend toward “safe” employment, such as that offered by a State department, is a result of the prolonged depression and .that many parents are urging their children to seek assured positions in preference to those where progress may depend more upon individual application and capacity. But, whatever the cause, it would be an adverse development if young people generally were to adopt “safety first” as their policy. It is to them that the country must look for the enterprise, the initiative, upon which the progress of the community will largely depend. In an address which he gave to a gathering of young people in Westminster Abbey some time ago Lord Elton spoke of the ‘ vast opportunities, vaster than any accorded to any previous generation, awaiting the youth of today in the Great Britain of tomorrow, and he added that the young people would need “the courage and faith to use them.” And in a young country the need for reinforcements of young people to essay this task must be at least equally important. Conditions during the last few years have created _ problems for young people which will be by no means the least difficult to solve in the post-war period. Many of them have come into a market where all forms of labour were in short supply and their earning capacity has been that of adult workers in many occupations. Young people of both sexes have been attracted to the cities from the country districts by the high earnings that were possible. In many instances schoolboys, during the holidays, have earned very high wages. These things must have tended to create a false impression, and it could not be expected that they would realize the temporary nature of this order of things. . .. , L But that will add to the difficulties of the individual readjustment that may be necessary. Possibly the realization of this fact has caused many parents to influence the choice made by their children respecting employment in some State department. From the national point of view the paramount need-is plain. It is that the most promising of the young people should be enrolled in the ranks of those whose task is production in some form, with capacity to use their energy and ability to the full, develop their own powers, learn to rely on their own efforts for their reward and use their own judgment for their future progress. It would be a sad day for the Dominion if ’its youth sought first for the safe, the’more easy, way through life. In Great Britain the leaders of the people are holding out no prospect of paths .made smooth for young people, but rather of difficult days ahead, of immense tasks to be done, knowing that youth will race the challenge. In a letter read to the school children of the United Kingdom General Smuts said that this was no world for easy-going optimism, but for courage and confidence, and he summed up his advice in these words: “Faith is the pass-word. New Zealand will certainly want its youth to have faith in themselves, in their countiy and in the future, for from it comes strength, individual and national.