TROUBLE AHEAD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25302, 12 August 1943, Page 7

TROUBLE AHEAD

Sir,—Boys on the verge of leaving school have difficulty in choosing a vocation. They are faced with the choice of spending years learning a skilled trade or immediately taking advantage of the equally paid unskilled type of work. They think what is the use of learning a trade where the wage is only slightly more, and m some cases much less, than labourers wages—quite a logical conclusion. This state of affairs is not wholly due to the war, it existed previously, and is due to the fact that, comparatively speaking, skilled workers and specialists in New Zealand are probably the lowest paid in the world. Even in socialised Soviet Russia experienced engineers, textile experts, etc., are treated most handsomely. In fact, all countries that are engaged on industrial and commercial expansion do not, like New Zealand, lose sight of the fact that it takes brains besides labour to make a success of an enterprise. We want to maintain, and even raise, the standard of living of all workers, yet at the same time skilled workers should get better treatment in the way of wages and salaries than they are getting at the present time. Then we have instances where a company has engaged a man from an industry entirely different from its own, and has placed him in an executive position. This man does quite well while business is good, especially under war conditions, when big profits are to be had for the asking. He can just sit back and let the foremen and experts carry him along. But the day comes when business is on a keen competitive basis, and his directors will not then be patting him on the back at the annual meeting; they will be looking for a man who has a full grasp of the business to take his place. It is remarkable that this state of affairs could exist, but it is surprising how numerous are the cases where men are given executive jobs in trades of which they have no knowledge. New Zealand will be poorly equipped to develop her industries if the proper labour is not available, and it appears that an acute shortage of trained men will retard our progress, and the situation will progressively become worse unless (better prospects are held out to boys seeking vocations.—l am, etc., Forward.