VITAL PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 70, 24 March 1933, Page 7

VITAL PROBLEM

NO OPPORTUNITY

THE LAMENT OF YOUTH

(From "The Post's" Representative.) ' SYDNEY, March 9. The problem of finding work for unemployed youths is a very real one in Australia. So far it has received but scant attention, but it would seem now that the danger of letting the situation drift any further is being realised. One of the Sydney papers this week printed- a striking letter from a young man who left Australia for Canada for the simple reason that he could find no work here. He said it was indeed a reflection on his native land which he loved so well that it could find no room for him -after he had completed 'a university education devised to make him of some value to the community. He said he had been educated at the expense of the State, yet when he was free to work there was no work for him. He was an exile. The money Australia had spent on him Jiad been wasted. How many young men were there of whom the same could be said? "I think the time has arrived," ho wrote, "for the Australian youth to organise and get the representation they deserve in the councils and Parliaments."

In Australia there are probably 20,000 youths between the ages of 18 and 21 who are unemployed—who have never done a day's work for wages in their lives. This is surely a serious matter, yet no effort has been made by any of the politicians, or- anybody else for that matter, to ease, the situation. Youths are drifting about hopelessly, and it would not be unreasonable to suppose that they were losing faith in their country and in themselves. It is safe to say that the majority of them are keen- and ambitious, but no matter how keen or how ambitious they may be, they arc forced to the conclusion that they are unwanted. This is scarcely the spirit that is needed in a young country, ana must be reflected in the future generations.

Canon Hammond, who has played a noble part in finding work for the unemployed or in placing families on the land, said that his first step- in solving the problem of the idle youth would be to keep all boys at school until they were at least 16 years of age, no mattor what the cost might be. In desperation he might even place all unemployed boys in camps, as lads were placed during the war. There they would be tested out in agricultural and other pursuits, and would be under some measure of discipline. They would be no more troublesome than they were in the war days. Ho was not sure that the time had not come for a big demonstration by boys who had just left school. They should make the Government realise' that it was time.for action. The Government might well appoint a man to Ministerial status to deal with the boy problem exclusively. The difficulties were not insurmountable, and the cost now would be very much less than that which would have to be paid if nothing were done.

Mr. F. J. Palmer, manager at 28 years of a successful business in- the city, said that the ambitious younc man would find a job no matter what difficulties beset his way. This view is not borne out by the facts, for it is obvious that no matter how keen a young ma.n might be there is little opening for him as Australia is today. There might be some truth in the assertion by another business man that 'the whole of the education1 system should be amended so as to alter the outlook of the average boy, and turn his mind from "cuff and collar" jobs, and direct his attention to tho primary industries Even so it cannot be argued with much success that the man on, the land is able to live in luxury. There may bo •a great deal in another contention that the apprentice laws should be altered as has been suggested by the Federal Arbitration Court. In any event it is clear that there is ample room for a general discussion of the whole matter, it is a question who will lead the ivay. So far there has been an absence of volunteers.