CAREERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 7 June 1927, Page 6

CAREERS

ON LEAVING .SCHOOL

(To tlie Editor)

Sir, —Mr .Justice Frazer presides over the destinies of the Arbitration Court, .anjj any pbservatipiys ciorning;. fl'cjfri . an learned .inJ si eminent a lawyer riaturaily will Attract special animationWhether or not these remarks (the remarks of a man whose very profession calls for the stu.lv and also for the practice of logic) will be of a particularly comforting nature to the boys themselves or to their parents is of course quite another question. At the end of last year several boys here in Sunny Nelson finished (heir school course with credit boili to themselves and to their relatives. They were anxious to start out on a creditable career in life. Blit many of them found all avenues closed, and closed too bv the Arbitration Court. Don’t forget that. Some of these boys are still kicking their idle heels in our streets to-day, and others have been forced to take up paltry .jobs by no means matching either their education or their brain power —“loose end" jobs to quote Mr Justice Fraser, jobs leading to nowhere. “The Judge’s remarks,’ we read, “were evoked by statements made by the secretary of the Master Builders’ Association (Mr W. 11. Winsor) who, on behalf of the master bricklayers applied for an order increasing the ratio of apprentices to journeymen in the bricklaying trade. Me said tie was frequently approached by boys for employment. He asked- the : Court to consider what would become of these boys. Were they to be absorbed in the trade or allowed to drift into blind alley occupations.” Mr Justice Fraser replied : “The Court must guard against too many boys being taken on in one trade.” Could any one wish for anything move logical, clear or comforting than that. Carping minds will say: “Isn’t that a question for the trade itself to settle? And carping minds will carry their queries even further and ask: “Is it any wonder after all that so many of our young men (as disclosed by the records of the courts) arcr rapidly drifting into a career of crime?” They must Jive somehow, and they must live up to the standard of the- education that has been given to them. Their brains have been, trained, and we know from the late Mr Watts that “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” If they were congenially employed, it is possible they would neither have the time nor the desire to turn their attention to burglary or to the forging of cheques, or to thieving in various "clever and tricky ways. We force education on to a lad. Whether he wants it or not he has got to have it. And after that, at his most vital stage, we bang the door in his face, ancf say to him, “You earn your living, Sonny,' as best yon can, so long as yon don’t impose upon our Heaven-given trade unionism, which is backed up by the Arbitration Court. Live as best von may, but don’t you dare to get in our way.” What will become of our boys? Some may earn a poor living in blind alley occupations. A good many are destined

to gravitate into gaol. There is no ten suitable doubt, about it at. all. Nor do ihey come from a. criminal stock. It's not naturally in their blood. Its something that is being forced upon them. 1 am, etc., CRITIC.