CAREERS SPOILED BY WAR

Evening Star, Issue 20194, 6 June 1929, Page 14

CAREERS SPOILED BY WAR

APPRENTICESHIP REINSTATEMENT SCHEME (Special to the ‘ Stab.’T CHRISTCHURCH, June 5. In order to assist returned soldiers whom the war years deprived of their careers, either by disabling them or by taking them away when they had just been apprenticed to trades, tho Christchurch branch of tho Returned Soldiers’ Association hopes to combine with the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, the Canterbury Employers’ Association, the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, and tho Rotary Club in a scheme by which these men will bo subsidised by the association when they are again apprenticed to the trades of their choice. “ We have at present sixty unemployed men on our hooks,” Mr G. A. Hayden, president of the association, told a ‘Sim’ reporter to-day, “and, although this scheme may affect only 10 per cent, of these, it is worth a trial.” Mr Hayden instanced two cases recently brought to Lis notice in which hoys aged nineteen and sixteen) years respectively had enlisted inst when they had been successfully apprenticed to t,ratios. On their return from the war it was too bite to take up these apprenticeships, and, though both were capable and keen men. they had been thrown on tho casual labour market. The war had thus made a serious gap in their careers and their lives. Such men as these the Returned Soldiers’ Association had hoped to induce to take up their apprenticeships again, .subsidising their apprentice wages in tidet to find them a decent living, Mr Hayden Imped tho four bodies whom the association intended to approach would give their help, for he was convinced that the scheme was a sound and fair one. Assistance would also be given to those cs-«emcc men whom total or partial disablement during the war had prevented from taking up their old trades on their return. Every ca ro is to bo taken to ensure that employers get onlv keen, worthwhile men. Testimonials will be asked of their employers before the war, and tho association will sec to it that themen apply themselves ■ diligently when work is provided. There may possibly ho difficulty with the Department of Labour in arranging the scheme, but even if it has to approach the Government the association is anxious to carry it through.