LURED BY WAGES.

Mt Benger Mail, 7 March 1934, Page 2

LURED BY WAGES.

BOVS I,E AVINC SCHOOL 'I'OO EARLY, Boomerang Effect of Unemployed Measures. Uamaru, Feb. 2b. At :i meeting of the Uamaru Boys’ Employment Committee last night the mayor (Mr M. F. Cooneyi said 132 boys had been found positions during the year, compared with thirty last year. ,\i r ,J. T. ('alder commented on >t:\s under school leaving age In iiig led to leave school by the it ducesment of wages offered through the committee, lie urged that boys -under fifteen should not be accepted It}' the committee, it was wrong to displace mature workers by youths. lie moved that the committee request the the Minister of Education to put into operation the compulsory clause in the Act relating to the school-leaving age, thereby raising the age to fifteen years. Mr Frank Milner seconding the motion considered that every teacher in the dominion favoured a higher leaving age. The Labour Party in England favoured sixteen years, and many of the States in America and Canada fixed sixteen as the leaving age. Boys of fourteen should still be in the school environment, not only from the economic point of view, but also from the civic aspect, in the development of character. At fourteen a boy was just developing tastes and aptitudes. . It seemed a calamity that boys were leaving school early when society was tremendously complex and infinitely greater demands were made <ll the citizen than was the case in the old days. A further motion was carried—that no boys under fifteen be given employment.