BOY UNEMPLOYMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 125, 29 May 1934, Page 8

BOY UNEMPLOYMENT

REPLY TO CRITICISM

Comment m&ae at a meeting of the Ohristchurch . Boys' Unemploymentl Committee, when doubt was expressed as to the accuracy of published figures showing the number of unemployed boys in Wellington, was replied to today by. Mr. L. J. Greenberg, secretary of tjie Wellington Boy Employment Committee.

At the meeting it was stated that Christchureh had been' prevented.. from obtaining assistance from the Government owing to the low figures In the other centres. Registered unemployed boys in Auckland' and Wellington were stated to total 217 and 358 respectively, whereas at Christchureh, it was stated that there were nearly 900 unemployed boys. The .chairman of the' Christchurch committee (Mr. A. J. McEldowney): said he did not believe the' North Island " figures because of his own experience in Wellington. "It is inexplicable to the Wellington committee why Christchureh, in an endeavour to get out of its own difficult probJem and to support its own high -'figure, should- challenge- the figures shown by'the other centres," said Mr. Greenberg.. "The fact that 463 positions have been found already in Wellington this year, the vast majority of which are permanent, together with the fact that there are still ,424 names on the register, proves the extent to which the' services of the Wellington committee are being used by boys seeking employment.■ .We have no knowledge as to how Christehurch treats its registrations, but we know, that in- Wellington we 'keep the roll thoroughly purged &o that the figures as quoted from time to time are a gauge of the actual position as it exists among unemployed boys in the city."