ARE MEN EFFICIENT?

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6450, 22 February 1908, Page 10

ARE MEN EFFICIENT?

A QUESTION FOR EMPLOYERS. SOME OPINIONS. Some of the points raised in a kg; suits were brought under the notice of ft few of Wellington s leading merchants during the course of da yThe replies received were decidedly interesting. NO WORSE TFx'AN BEFOREMr John Duthi.o, of Duthie and Co., Ltd., was risked whether there was any great difficulty in getting good men to fill responsible posts. Ho said that the position was much as he had always found it, though the query was very ha-rdi to answer.

th© matter of educational equipment, ho said that practically without oy/coption all tho young men who had passed through his hands had proved up to their business and worthy of advancement. On that score b,e had nothing against them. The outy complaint he had to make agaizif/t the educational system was that old one, that it did not teach the boys to write well. That was a marked defect in the products of our schools, hut, though numbers of efforts U?<d been made to remedy it, they had no good result.

He really could not say that so far as ho had known, any of his young men had failed in their duty through devotion to He was sure, however, that a man whose whole heart was in his work would be a much greater success, than one whoso thoughts were continually running on sporting matters. A man to get on should make success in business his pride of life, and the class that- spent "all tho available time in thinking of sports and sporting would never rise vers* much.

Questioned as to whether he had found it bettor to train up his own responsible men or to get them else where, Mr Ihithie declared unhesitatingly for tho former method. Of course, one could not always find openings for all tho young people who deserved promotion, but whenever pos eible he preferred this course to the practice of importing the heads of departments.

THE PESSIMISTIC VIEW. The head of another large firm took the pessimistic view when approached by tho seeker after opinions. “There is very groat difficulty, ;,J he declared, “in securing really good men for responsible positions, for the very simple reason that they all want to start “on their own’ as soon as possible. Tho really efficient ma-i only stays with you until ho has saved sufficient money to become his own master/ 5 On tho educational question he was equally pessimistic, and said that the advantages offered to boys her© yere far short of those obtainable in, say, England and Scotland. The boys tunned out here had not specialised, nnd tho schools really did not -fit them for commercial work at all. The trouble, to his mind, was that, the education system, at least, after tho nrimary schools, had no thoroughness, the authorities seeming not to have a due appreciation of the value to youths of being properly grounded in shorthand, typewriting,' mental arithmetic, book-keeping, and so on. In short, he considered that the systqm was medieval.

Another trouble was that the boys wore not serious enough and did not scorn to have the same intense feeling for money getting as was to be found, say, in the north of England and Scotland. They were too fond of sport, but they could hardly, perhaps, be blamed for that—it was just climatic.

Ho agreed that it was better to train one’s own departmental managers and heads, but the trouble was that they would hardly ever stay. They went to other places where more money was offered, or perhaps got swelled heads and started on their own. OTHER MEN’S IDEAS. From other inquiries mad© it appeared that the task of securing reliable and efficient men was not really so very difficult, in spite of the strong contrary opinion just quoted. It was, apparently, agreed that the educational system of the Dominion seemed to turn out youths fairly well adapted to take their places in. the business ‘world, though it was stated that the writing was usually defective, and the arithmetic more often than not left much to be desired.

‘TLo whole fault in these days,” said one manager, "is that there is too much recreation. Even if only a few in an establishment are devoted to sport such as football or cricket, they seem almost inevitably to upset the others and start them off in the same direction.”

The opinion was generally met with that it was far more satisfactory to take men for positions of trust from among those who had grown used the ways of a business, though it was admitted that the infusion of new blood at the top often did an immense amount of good. !