OVER THE SLUMP

Evening Star, Issue 18729, 3 September 1924, Page 5

OVER THE SLUMP

NEW ZEALAND LABOR CONDITIONS. CAREERS FOR BOYS. WRONG BIAS GIVEN. [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, September 2. In the winter of 1922 New Zealand was at the worst point of depression, the unemployment figures totalling 1,825. In the following winter the conditions improved, the unemployment difficulty being only half that of the preceding year. While last winter, according to the Labor Department, we had passed the most serious crisis of unemployment, which rose to 677 in June. Laborers comprise over 50 per cent of the present applicants, the remainder including clerks, 27; cooks, stewards, etc., 27; drivers, 26; engineers, 30; farm hands, 21; seamen and firemen, .18; and other occupations in smaller numbers. It will be again noticed that, with the exception of engineers and motor mechanics, none of the skilled trades in which apprenticeship periods are required shows-any degree of unemployment. The Public Works Department made the usual arrangements for placing more necessitous cases on public works tor the winter months. Added to this, local bodies have throughout Now Zealand taken up the work of effecting street and road alterations, putting in electric power station, tramway extensions, making improvements to parks' and reserves. As a result of the liberation through the State Advances Department of largo sums for houses, the building trade has been more active than at any time since 1914, and an increased number of men was in consequence engaged in this industry. The largo importation of boots during 1923-24 has, however, had a depressing effect on the boot manufacturing trade, one of the largest and newest factories in New Zealand being closed down for several weeks, while others have been working short time since last September. New Zealand factories are slowly increasing, the number of workers being 97,731, showing a 10,000 rise over the year 1914. Last year it was observed that there was a large decrease in the number of workers employed in factories in New Zealand. This year there is an increase of 5,123, and the number of factories has increased by 474. The Scaffolding Inspection Act has been in force for over a year, covering a much wider field of building operations than previously. Builders and users of scaffolding are found, on the whole, to give the regulations careful attention. There were 184 accidents, an increase of thirty-nine on the previous year. The number of accidents in .proportion to the number of jobs shows, however, a considerable reduction. It can bo safely stated that the effect of enlarging the sphere of inspection work on all buildings and- excavations where accidents are likely to occur has been a considerable diminution in the number of accidents. Prosecutions number fifty-six, compared with twenty-nine in the previous year. The Apprenticeship Department’s report suggests in connection with the new Apprenticeship Act that employers’ and workers’ committees will, in practice, become the backbone of the Act, as they may be given full power in their respective trades and localities to administer the Act for themselves, with the Court of Arbitration, however, as the general controlling authority and court of appeal. The success of the Act will no doubt largely depend upon the appointment of suitable men, who will look to the ultimate .interests of their trades and to the public welfare generally. A table relating to the principal trades shows that the present number of apprentices is 6,901, but the number allowable without exceeding the maximum fixed in awards is 8,022. On the basis of an investigation of the intended careers of boys leaving a number of primary schools, the Secretary of Labor states that, if the figures are typical of the rest of the schools, it can readily be seen that the wishes of the boys lie to a very large extent in directions in which they, are not likely to be required, while the important primary and secondary industries, which now employ nearly two-thirds of the male working population, would receive only 31 per cent, of the boys available. This information supports the conclusion of the committee in its report that the education system has in the past given boys a bias in favor of commercial and professional occupations to the detriment of the dominion industries, and that the question of an alteration to the system should ho considered.