The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1933. A BLOT THAT MUST BE REMOVED.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11829, 10 January 1933, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1933. A BLOT THAT MUST BE REMOVED.

Tbe general opinion must be that Messrs. Ansell and Smith, who were commissioned by the Government to report on the juvenile unemployment problem, missed a groat opportunity to invite Cabinet to adopt an important principle which should he in force in every well-ordered Slate. Wo refer to the growing need of statistics showing the annual need in respect of flesh juvenile labour in cverj calling iii the country. It must how be made the settled policy of this Dominion that a much huger percentage of the people—both young and old—shall earn their livelihood from their own 'productive ' efforts. l>i tlie past, far too many workers were employed . merely in connection with the sale and distribution of imported commodities. .It tbe day of heavy borrowing is over, then it must assuredly lio the case that the day is also over when’such large orders eg ll bo placed overseas for commodities which could be produced within tlui Dominion. |n theip J'pport, Messrs. Anselj qn& Srpitli almost apolqglscd for their- contention that the only wide avenue of employment open to workless lads to-day is the land. Perhaps they realise that if * primary production could' be greatly increased no guarantee could be given that tho whole of the produce could, meantime,

at any rate, be., sold at., profitable prices. Their argument would appear to..lie simply this: that lads who cannot dig their living out of the paving blocks in the cities would ,be able to dig some sort of q living out of tbe soil. . Very properly, they stress the fget that, in the past, there ha» been an oducatiop bias which has led youths away from, the land. Inferetitially, also, they point out that many lads were encouraged to engage in trades and professions which cannot at present provide them with employment. The fact, therefore, requires to be faced that tile education system is noL alone to blame for the present very unsatisfactory, state of affairs in regard to juvenile unemployment. As a sequel to the Ottawa Conference, it has come as a bombshell that some of the Dominion’s secondary industries may find' it difficult to enlarge their scope on account of the threatened more intensive competition by Home manufacturers.. This condition of things makes it all the more imperative that the Government shall have compiled comprehensive returns showing the effect of the economic blizzard on employment in respect of all professions and industries and more particularly in relation to their probable, future labour requirements. Unquestionably, there has, in recent years, been far too great a tendency in this Dominion hi the direction of thq development of a huge army of workers of tlie class to which in earlier years it was customary to refer as the “eulf and collar brigade.” As regards the professions, for instance, it will be agreed that the legal profession lias become over-done. A similar remark might, too, aptly he applied to olliee work, which has become so greatly simplified by the adoption of labour saving devices. In the secondary industries, also, both skilled and unskilled workers have, in recent years, fell, the elfecls arising from the adoption of modern mechanical devices which have reduced the amount of ruminal work that requires to he done. It would well repay tlie Stale to create a small Hoard to go thoroughly into the matter of the future of employment in this Dominion. At all costs steps should be taken to avoid unemployment on a large scale becoming a permanent blot on its economic life.