STATE LURE TO YOUTH ASSAILED BY N.Z. PLUMBERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22821, 16 December 1948, Page 6

STATE LURE TO YOUTH ASSAILED BY N.Z. PLUMBERS

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 15. Government interference in private enterprise, with special reference to what was described as the current Government policy of advertising lucrative rewards to youths in an attempt to divert labour from private employment was discussed at a meeting of the Wellington Master Plumbers' Association states a supplied report.

The president, Mr. J. W. Kay ward, said there was a very real and national danger in the reckless attempts of the Government in these times of labour shortage to ignore inflation in the attempt to build itself up in big business. It was private enterprise, ho said, which provided the money that maintained the many unprofitable Government undertakings. “The Railways Department is a large employer of trade apprentices." said Mr. Kay ward. “These apprentices are invited to start at a wage equal, in the case of plumbers, to the award rate of a normal three-year apprentice. “That the railways lost some £600,000 last year as a result of a policy of national inertia is, of course, no argument in this case against the policy of inflating wages. “If private enterprise, seeking to employ apprentices to skilled trades, were to follow the example new being set by the Public Service, then we could all have inflation without waiting any longer,” said Mr. Kayward.