Immigrant Or Native-Borne?

NZ Truth, Issue 985, 11 October 1924, Page 5

Immigrant Or Native-Borne?

/ Apprenticeship Problem

The Unionist's Present : The Youth's Future

The limitation of apprentices is intended to prevent greedy employers from making too much use of boy labor. Whether it succeeds m this purpose or not, it certainly prevents many boys from learning trades. Unless New Zealand stagnates (which she. will not) the gap between the number of completing apprentices, and the additional journeymen required, will annually grow greater. A's industry will insist on having qualified workers, it will m that case be forced to import them. Is it better for N.ew Zealand to train her own artisans, or to get some other country to train them? Does New Zealand prefer immigrants m her skilled trades, or does she want her own sons? *

What, is to happen to the youths of to-day and to-morrow 13 a problem which is at present troubling many heads of families. The opportunities of entering arid learning a trade, are being more and more lessened by the action of the Arbitration Court, at the instigation of Trade Unions, m the limitation of the percentage of apprentices to journeymen. There are tod£y many youths just left school who are blockedv from entering upon an apprenticeship simply .because employers are notalLowed to put them to work, on account of the terms of awards. While it will be readily admitted that some protection is essential against the unscrupulous employer who would not think twice of running his factory on the principle of boy labor to the total exclusion of adults, there are times when the trade union representative, m his relentless demands for reduction of the proportion of apprentices, shows a degree of short-sightedness which must be detrimentally reflected m tjie future supply of journeymen tradesmen. While such a condition may spell the Utopia of the professional trade union organiser 1 — as it may mean that the, workmen under his care can demand

their own figure m the labor marketit will nevertheless be a sorry day for the industries of the country as well as for the generations, of tomorrow. At present, boys are waiting to get into trades m large numbers, and as the percentage m some cases is so disproportionate, these lads are running wild, doing any class of odd work they can get or constituting a drag on the finances of the home. It is not m the interests of th& community that "such should be the case, and there is probably a greater number of families struggling along under this handicap than is generally credited. Often, too, a boy has to wait till he is well on m his teens ere he can get into a trade, if he has patience to wait, which economically is apt to cause serious trouble m later years. In the majorits r of cases one apprentice is allowed to three journeymen, and thetrades where this is insisted upon run the risk of being m a precarious position m years to come. Under the px-esent principle there is "a danger of the youths of to-day being driven into all sorts and conditions of cul-de-sac occupations, a condition of things which does not make for the gooi of the future generation.