The Otago Witness. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, APRIL 14.

Otago Witness, Issue 1324, 14 April 1877, Page 13

The Otago Witness. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, APRIL 14.

Every year seems to increase the difficulties of getting rid of our boys. It is now a long time, as we count years in the Colony, since New Zealand could be held to be a paradise for sprouting genius — a long time since it presented outlets for youths who found the struggles of getting on in the Old World beyond their strength., There was a time, of course, in our history. — which lasted for a few, a very few years — when it was held enough for any lad to have a few, pounds in order to secure for himself independence through the medium of sheep. This period — what we may call the Beotian state — did not last very long. Indeed it ended, more or less, with the last country that was taken up. Steadily and surely, though at firsfc slowly, it .became clear that the sum required for the starting of a youth in this Colony was growing greater. This was not to be wondered at, since it is the natural consequence of accumulating wealth. Wherever there is much accumulated capital, there the avenues to'independence become encumbered with numbers. Every year adds a something small or large to the amount of capital required | to enable a youth to push his own way and start on his own account. It cannot be denied that the desire on all hands to enter boys in some genteel employment, has contributed not a little to the present crowded state of those paths in life whose chief recommendation it is that the wayfarer can always wear a black coat and sport a spotless shirt. The first desire, as it seems, on the part of our settlers is to enter their son in an office. It does not matter one pin, as it appears, in what office he is entered ; the only idea is.tUat he should work with

his head and not with his hands j that he should be in the way of getting the great prizes, although he may not have been well equipped by nature to grasp them. Now, we think a good deal of nonsense is written and talked about this desire of all parents to enter their offspring for the best stakes. Admit- j ling, of course, that in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred the entrance on office life means a life of genteel i penury, and that only in the hundredth does it mean a success that would really satisfy the aspirants, the two conditions of working with head or hand are more exactly balanced than is often allowed. A worker with his hand in the trade say of a carpenter can make, if he be a skilled hand, a little over £200 per annum. A worker "with his head at the same age in a merchant's office will perhaps make nearly as much. The wages of the former are not likely to grow for the rest of his life, the salary of the latter may increase enormously, and at any rate is not likely to diminish much. Theformerhascomparativelyfewchances of a rise in life ; true, he may become a builder, a contractor, or an architect, if he has peculiar advantages and exceptional abilities. The latter, if he has plenty ot impudence, dash, courage, or lack, call the cause what he will, has a score of opportunities of arriving at the summwn bonum of Colonial bliss^ — a lot of money. So long as this even approximately represents the relative opportunities of the two kinds of occupations, it cannot be wondered at if parents prefer the genteel occupation to the other. Holding, as we do, that the artdzan is ten times a more useful citizen in the Colony than the clerk, we look to see what redress can be found for an acknowledged evil. The remedies that suggest themselves are two in kind. First, an alteration of the standard of happiness, which will render it less de rigueur to have a large income. This remedy, though effectual, we, may dismiss as impracticable ; ibis unlikely that such a change will take . place in public opinion, and the loss of the spur to industry would be so .great that we could not wish that it should take place. The other remedy is equally effectual and far more possible. It is to pay clerical labour a little less and artizan labour a good deal more. The, determination to send lads into offices instead of apprenticing them, to trades, will thus be cured in a sufficient period of time, and with the increase in overcrowding which is seen in the clerk rank will come a decrease in pay. Ultimately the difficulty will be solved by the operation of the law of supply and demand, and until this law effects the end it is useless and absurd to attempt to accomplish it by any swifter method.