WORKLESS BOYS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 50, 27 August 1932, Page 15

WORKLESS BOYS

TOTAL OF 2900

LAST YEAR'S EX-PUPILS

MR. S. G. SMITH'S FIGURES

Statements to the effect that 20,000 boys -who left school at the cud of last year are now unemployed were disposed of by figures quoted by Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., who, with _Mr. A. E..Ansell, M.P., | is associated with the Unemployment Board in dealing with the problem of unemployed boys, in an address at Tiinaru on Wednesday. Mr. Smith said ho had seen all sorts of figures quoted in respect to the number of boys who were unemployed, and the- late Government Statistician had assured him that there had never been any method of collecting figures as to the number of boys out of work. Mr. Smith said that he personally had investigated the position as at 31st December last, and he had found that 1(5,467 boys had left primary schools, junior high schools, secondary schools, combined technical schools and district high schools. Of that number, 10,547 left primary schools. Of the latter total, 5004' had gone to higher schools, 46 to clerical positions, 179 to shops and warehouses, 245 to trades, 2506 to farms, and 500 to other occupations, while 1115 had stayed at home. It was to the credit of the headmasters of the primary schools that so carefully had the returns been prepared that out of over 2000 schools in New Zealand, there were only 352 boys who left primary schools last year who were unaccounted for. Tho number who left junior high schools was 073, and of these ±20 went to higher schools, 39 to clerical positions, 34 to trades, 5o to farms, 43 to other occupations, 66 went home, leaving only 7 unaccounted. The number which had loft post-primary schools, other than district high schools, was 5247, of which 234 went to universities, 5 to training colleges, 490 to clerical positions, 628 to shops, 669 to trades, 1629 to farms, 115 to other occupations, 177 went home, 115 to engineering, surveying or architectural, leaving 1185 unaccounted for. The total number unaccounted for was 1544, plus the 1358 who went home. He said that on these figures one could see that the problem was not a.; huge as some people made it out to bo, but he was not quoting them with the idea of minimising the position. COMPULSORY REGISTRATION. Dealing with a suggestion that there should be compulsory registration of boys, Mr. Smith said that neither he nor Mr. Ansell was prepared to say what they would recommend in their report to tho board, but his personal opinion wag that there should bo no need for compulsory registration iv New Zealand If men were prepared to give their tune, leisure, and money in the interests of tho boys, and parents were not sufficiently interested to force their boys to register, then some other steps would have to be taken. He was opposed to compulsory registration. It was estimated that the Government would get £3,500,000 by way of the wage tax and the levy, but it was indefinite whether that sum would come in m view of the present difdeult times. If they did get the money, it waa to provide for the adult unemployed. A careful estimate had been made of the expenditure of local bodies, semi-local bodies, and relief organisations, and the sum collected and spent this year was £1,500,000, so that the country was finding £5,000,000 for the relief of unemployment. It was a lot of money for a country with a population of 1,500,000 and it was a tragedy that a; = country with the resources which New Zealand possessed should have 55,000 out of work within its walla. THE APPRENTICESHIP ACT. Mr. Smith stated that the difficulties they were encountering in the towns were too numerous to mention. It had been stated that many employers were anxious to take on boys, not with the idea of dismissing adult labour, but to give the boys something to do, but they had been prevented from doing so becauso of awards, the Shops and Offices Act, and the Apprenticeship Act. It was a tact that in April, 1930, there were 9826 apprentices in skilled trades. In 1931 there were 8901, and in December last there were 6910, a drop of approximately 3000. There wer^ia' New Zealand 225 awards and agreements covering 78 trades, in which youths other than apprentices and girls, were involved, and any suggestion of modification involved so many agreements that it was something that could not bo done haphazardly. He would not be a parly to anything to exploit boy labour to tlu> detriment of the country or to tho detriment of adult labour. (Hear, hear.) The Apprenticeship Act had been put on the Statute Book mainly as a result of <,he unanimity oi tho employers and tho workers who were desirous of having an Act which no. only controlled the employment of apprentices, but which would be an aid to tho training of boys in craftmanship. It had been a great success in many ways, but what happened in actual practice? It had been fpund that in one shop there woro third fourth, and fifth year apprentices, and tho fifth year apprentice was drawing as much as the journeyman who was on rationed work. The whole question was whether the apprentice was getting too much, but so far they had not committed themselves to a decision. Mr. Smith said that they were securing evidence in, writing from apprenticeship committees in the various centres, and their recommendations would be based on that evidence, and not on hearsay. The boys had been born at a time which brought them to a period of depression, and how narrow was tho gap! They might live to be 60, 70, or SO, but there was a gap, between tho ages of 14 and IS, in which they should be trained in some skilled art or craft, and there was no opportunity for them, and if no opportunity was made for them, the future of the boys was going to bo damned in many cases, in what they were gifted to follow, and in what they had been trained to follow.