WHEN TO RETIRE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIII, Issue 3076, 7 November 1929, Page 6

WHEN TO RETIRE.

That it should be made compulsory to retire at the age of sixty-five was expressed by Mr Lewis O. Ord, vicechairman of Messrs William Beardmore and Company, Ltd., of Glasgow. when speaking at* a conference on co-partnership in industry, which was held at Somerville College, Oxford, under the auspices of the Industrial Co-partnership Association. The conference agjiin sat in deck chairs under the shade of the trees in the grounds. “It is a fact,” said Mr Ord, “that when a man "who has been all his life in one steady occupation suddenly retires and drops out of everything, he often just fades out and dies as a. result of losing all interest in life. “This is exceptionally the case with men in out of door occupations. It is essential, therefore, to work up any and every outside occupation in life for these men so that they will have something to live for and occupy their minds when -they retire. “I am in favour of compulsory retiring at the age of sixty-five—that is before they become too old to work up other interests.” Mr Ord gave as an illustration the case of twelve engine drivers, employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway who retired at about the age of

seventy. Eleven of these men died v/ithin the first year of their retirement. Since then the authorities had ■been careful to retire the men earlier. Mr T. Malcolm Stewart, chairman of rtlie (Associated. Portland Cement Manufacturies, Ltd., who presided at the morning session, said that wonderful results could be obtained from employees if they were treated in the right Spirit. “Confidence,” he said, “begets confidence.” Mr 0. E. Allen, organiser of the Printing Trades Alliance, said that the person who had the least chance of reaching the best positions was the best craftsman, because his employer realised his good qualities as a craftsman and invariably kept him in the workshops

Drays and gigs are rapidly disappearing from the main roads in the face of the advance of the motor as a popular means of travel. A traffic tally taken on the Napier-Taupo road for four months of last year (says the Napier Telegraph) showed that 516 horse-drawn vehicles used the road in that time, but when a similar tally was taken over the same period this year, the registration showed a drop to 370. On the other iiand the motor cars using the road increased from 11,692 to 17,627.