Pahiatua Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1929. EMPLOYMENT FOR BOYS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11068, 15 February 1929, Page 4

Pahiatua Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1929. EMPLOYMENT FOR BOYS.

During tlie past few weeks much has been heard of the difficulty tlir.t is being experienced in finding employment for the boys who have just finished their school course. The problem confronts parents up and down the Dominion, and enforced idleness must be to- the detriment of the lads, creating a spirit of hopelessness. if not one of hostility to the existing order. The matter, says the Lyttelton Times, can be approached from many angles, and some careful students discern in an aggressive land settlement policy the best hope of effecting an improvement. With that view it is possible to agree, and contend that the proposed solution does not go far enough. "While it would he reasonable to assume that many of the lads who have just left school would prefer a life in the open, we must be prepared to offer them a choice, in order that they may follow the occupation which lias the greatest, attractions for them. Some day, with the aid of the modern psychologist, we will be able to determine definitely that work for which each boy is best adapted. And the only possible way of providing suitable avenues of employment for these citizens of to-morrow i s to develop the secondary industries, for they offer the widest range. Or. many occasions we have urged tiie individual purchaser to use his or her purchasing pxjwer so that local industry may benefit. To a very large extent tlie purchaser creates tlie market, but the retailer, too, must play his part, and that, apparently. was the thought underlying the Minister of Commerce’s remarks to the grocers conference at Napier. The retail trader can do much to bring goods locally made under the notice of customers and,, by recommending them, assist in building up the trade. The consumer can create the demand, hut the retailer can, to some extent, influence its trend, and it is in tlie co-operation of the two that the greatest, possibilities lie. The part of the manufacturer, it has been said, is to study his market

and do all possible to meet its requirements, so that industrial development is a matter for joint effort of consumer, retailer and manufacturer.