FINDING WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 48, 26 February 1937, Page 11

FINDING WORK

SCHEME SUGGESTED

HELP FOR EMPLOYERS

A scheme whereby employers would be granted some remission in taxation for every man taken off sustenance and rehabilitated in industry was suggested by the president, Mr. C. H. Wynyard, in an address at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Society of Accountants last night, as a means of assisting the unemployment problem. ■

From information available, said Mr. Wynyard, it would appear that there was very little unemployment amongst the society's own members, but unless the problem Was approached from a new angle he thought the difficulties of unemployment among members must sooner or later arise. The latest 'figures showed that the general problem of unemployment still existed in the Dominion, and while the present and past Governments had made valiant efforts to cope with the difficult problem, most measures had been palliative rather than permanent in effect. He believed that the problem of finding employment for all its people would be with the Dominion fbr all time, but some scheme must be instituted to see that the boys and girls leaving school were given a chance in life with a sense of opportunity and purpose. Today employers were experiencing difficulties in obtaining skilled labour because those who had been unemployed, had lost their skill and were out of touch with the latest changes in industry, and in the period of trade depression fewer apprentices were trained. REMISSION IN TAXATION. "The problem of rehabilitating in industry men on sustenance is further complicated by recent tendencies upwards higher wages, and employers, in order to retain efficiency in their businesses, are compelled to engage workers of the highest skill and training," said Mr. Wynyard. "To the man on sustenance who, through unemployment, has lost his high standard of skill, the chances of regaining his position in industry are not hopeful. Any scheme to encourage employers to engage sustenance men and carry them for a time and give them the opportunity of recovering part of their lost skill is surely worthy of the attention of the 'Government. A scheme could be evolved whereby employers would be granted some remission in taxation for every man taken off sustenance and rehabilitated in industry. Such remissions should be granted for a term and could' be progressively reduced from time^ to time as the worker acquired greater skill. The knowledge that he would be expected to reach a certain degree of efficiency at the end of a term would be an incentive to the worker to give of his best in order to secure a permanent place in industry." The problem of youth employment, he continued, was of sufficient importance to warrant the Government, after collaboration with educational authorities, setting up the necessary machinery for -obtaining information and figures to enable parents and headmasters to forecast possibilities in various industries and callings.

"This problem of seeing that the future generation is not allowed to drift into the ranks of the unemployed must give all thinking people food for serious thought, and we, as a; society controlling the profession of accountancy "in this Dominion,- must give some lead as;far as that profession is concerned," said Mr. Wynyard.