REAL LIFE STORIES

Grey River Argus, 24 April 1937, Page 2

REAL LIFE STORIES

PLACEMENT SERVICE SIDELIGHTS

(Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, April 23. The story is told of th e achievement f a man registered at the Greymouth Office of the State iP'lacement Service. He was offered a job on a farm thirty, six miles from the borough, but the only means of transportation to the work was per cream hrrry, which was ot due for three days. He reflected that many varieties of tragedy could happen in that period, including the disaster of some other chap getting the job. and, being a purposeful in. ividual, he set out to walk the dis. ance. Arriving at his destination at nidnight, luT”was compelled to rousa ; rom slumber his prospective employer, | vho, though somewhat impatient at J eing wakened, was impressed with tile .(? an’s initiative and grit—assets of i; reat value on a bu.-ih farm. Virtue roved to be its own reward, and both J inployer and employee are satisfied rith the outcome of that long tramp hrough the night. zl southern Placement- Office recently r J eceived an urgent call for an engineer /J] or a steamer, but a search of the re. r A ords disclosed that no man of that de. ‘ fl ignation was on the register. Iti imperative that a suitable man should j] ie found, because the vessel was being) I eld up in the meantime. A furthei® 1 earch of the files was made, when it? fl was found that a man who was em..; ■ ployed as a night-watchman had stat-' 9 ed that he had a second-class marine en. S

gineer’ s ticket. He was sent for, and , I is credentials being verified, he was' I onducted to the office of the owner of fl the steamer. After a few hurried/ fl uestions and equally prompt answers, fl 'he man was engaged and was in the. fl engine-room within an hour. . Having reached a ..legal cul de sac, W nd being desperately in need of employment, a young man recently enroll? ■ d at a Placement Office. His story, fl was that he had travelled from Eng-' - ■ and, his birth-place, to Australia, that ; . r -fl e had failed to get work, and that in ]

1 an almost starving condition he had 4 stowed away o n a boat bound for New Zealand. Arrested on arrival, he was,’’j fined, but was given time in which to •; . pay, on condition that he reported at f intervals to Court officials. A position '/ 1 on a farm was found for him by the / Wellington Placement Office, but hav- A ing injured an arm he had to give up ♦ J .’ ■' this work, and he returned to Welling- < J ton. As he had not paid anything off mH the fine a warrant for his arrest was issued. Here was a dilemma that seem- / fl d most difficult to deal with, bat fl J?-entually the serving of the warrant , fl was suspended when the man agreed to ' fl place himself under the control of ■ the Placement Officer. The Hospital authorities then came into the case fl when they were requested to examine | fl the man’s injured arm. and at the jfl pres’ent time he is receiving necessary treatment. On the day that the doetor certifies his fitness for work he will fl be able to commence' in a job that has Afl been found for him. Practical bene- jfl volence could not go farther than it fl did in this case: a young man at. the < ■ very end of his resources, placed in a ' job. then saved from a prison sentence, fl provided with free hospital treatment, fl and further work when he is able to r fl do ih 1 Such cases as these are all in the w ■ day’s work of Placement Officers J'fl throughout the Dominion.