THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19807, 30 November 1927, Page 14

THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.

Sir.—Mr. Gribble, of Hamilton, speaking to the Auckland Rotary Club, gets right on to the disease when he says, "the solution of the unemployment problem lies in properly-trained man-power." To obtain properly-trained man-power, using the term in the adult sense, involves properly-trained boy-power. , Untrained men are the direct result of neglect in training the youth. In times of acute depression, the unemployed comprise trained men of all callings, as well as unskilled labour, but the. depression is rendered more acute because so many men out of work are untrained men. But in normal times there are unemployed, and it is, therefore, these men who really constitute, the unemployment problem. . Untrained men are those who, when boys, either from natural disinclination to learn anything, or through the indifference or financial circumstances of parents, were allowed to grow up without, training. In the matter of health, for example, we take all sorts of precautions in anticipation of possible epidemics, but the. epidemic of unemployment is permitted to recur without any attempt at a solution of the problem. When a boy leaves school he must report for military trailing. He should be compelled to report in a similar manner as to what he is doing to fit him to become a good citizen, qualified to undertake skilled work. Boys of school age in the streets selling racecards, etc., at hours when they should be at school, are going to continue to provide the crop of unemployed of the future. It is time somebody tackled the solution to which Mr. Gribble has drawn attention. A.