DEFIANT APPRENTICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20243, 1 May 1929, Page 17

DEFIANT APPRENTICE.

JUDGE FRAZER'S ADMONITION

"GOT TO LEARN HIS LESSON." DISMISSAL APPEAL FAILS. Ilie conduct of a. plumber's apprentice, IT. R. Carter, was reviewed at length in the Arbitration Court yesterday. Carter, who was dismissed by. his employer, W. A. Chenery, at the end of last year, appealed against his dismissal, claiming that he had never been absent from work without reasonable excuse, and had never been unruly, defiant or disobedient, or had misconducted himself during the term of his apprenticeship. ,

Carter's counsel, Mr. Tuck, said he must admit that there had been a certain amount of misconduct, justifying a certain amount of action on the employer's part, but he -was pleading that the severity of the punishment was not justified. It was not such misconduct as would justify an employer in terminating the apprenticeship contract. Mr. Thomson said that Carter was taken on in 1924. His conduct from the start was by no means satisfactory, and it was not very long before complaints were received from the other men. They said that he was lazy and unreliable, and was taking no particular interest in his work. He met with a number of accidents, some of which wero due to his own carelessness. Challenging The Foreman. He absented himself without leave on several occasions, and wanted to fight the foreman in a number of instances. He. liad a bad influence on the other boys, and had been given every opportunity to straighten up, without avail. On one occasion, his employer had taken him hack at his father's urgent request. Evidence was given by W. A. Chenery and two of his foremen regarding Carter's unsatisfactory conduct as an apprentice. Chenery said that in four years and ten months the boy, now aged 19, had reached only the standard that might be expected of an 18-montlis apprentice. In announcing that the appeal must be disallowed, Mr. Justice Frazer administered a sharp castigalion to the boy, explaining kindly at the close that it was all for his own good. " He, will not understand me if I say he has got too much ego in his cosmos," said His Honor. " But he will unders'tand when I say that he thinks he is a very big man when lie is only a rather ignorant youth, who has not learned the first lesson 'of discipline. . If he would realise that he is not the big man he thinks he is, even if he does own a Ford car, he might still do something." Dismissal Quite Justified.

His Honor said the evidence was all one way, and it was perfectly clear that this apprentice had so misconducted himself as to justify his dismissal. Jllie Court made every allowance for the characteristics of boys) but in this case there was no room for any consideration of that kind. He had been unruly and lazy, and his employer had been exceptionally forbearing. If there had been any indication of a sense, of responsibility even that morning, the Court would have made an effort to induce the employer to reconsider the matter, but the boy was apparently quite defiant still. He had got to learn his lesson, that ho would not get on in this world unless he first disciplined himself. One of the serious aspects of the case was that lie had exeicised a bad influence on the other boys. Mr. Chencry said he was afraid ho could not take Carter again ' " I am rather sorry the foreman did not give you the father and mother of a hiding," said Judge Erazer meditatively to Carter. At His Honor's request, Mr. J. Clark, secretary of the Plumbers' Union, saic that lie would do what he could to find a suitable employer who would be willing to take him on. " What is wanted is a bif, strong man, who will not stand any nonsense," His Honor said.