FOR YOUTHS AND BOYS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 120, 23 May 1931, Page 7

FOR YOUTHS AND BOYS

V.M.C.A. ACTIVITIES

The V.M.C.A. is proceeding with the work-of registering unemployed boys and youths. The majority of the applicants so far represent boys who have been in previous employment and have lost their positions through the failure of businesses and retrenchment in staffs. The majority also .have had secondary or technical education, some having matriculated and others having had specialised experience of various kinds. The boys offering showed commendable eagerness in their desire to secure any kind of employment, and it is a tragedy to realise that so many strapping young New, Zealanders have such little prospect of securing something to do. Mny of these boys have been out of work for periods up to twelve months. On the whole the V.M.C.A. authorities are impressed by the type of boys offering, and they are about to make an appeal to individual employers to take at least one extra boy on their staffs. A considerable proportion of the boys have signified their willingness to leave the city and take up farm work if such an opportunity offers; already one farmer, handy to Wellington, has offered to take two or three boys as cadets on his farm, giving the' association the guarantee that the boys would be given general farm experience, and that adequate provision would be made for their keep and remuneration. Pending a more general and comprehensive scheme for meeting the need the V.M.C.A. is keenly desirous that farmers and employers should view this question of boy unemployment with every degree of sympathy and interest; under the, present circumstances. Meanwhile, the .association will continue its registration. and will seek avenues and openings of employment. Arrangements are in hand also for the organising of groups, classes, and activities by the means of which the time of unemployed boys may be: usefull, occupied pending the obtaining of employment. Unemployed boys and youths up to the age of twenty are requested :to personally call at the V.M.C.A., 150, Willis street, between the hours of 10 a.m. and noon, 2 p.m. and i p.m., Saturday and Sunday excepting. Offers or suggestions should be forwarded to the general secretary of the association. ,