Rangitikei Advocate SATURDAY, APRIL'10,1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9416, 10 April 1909, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate SATURDAY, APRIL'IO,I9O9. EDITORIAL NOTES.

REGENT English papers give some account of the report of [[the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws ana Relief of Distress. The Commission has been sitting for a little over three|years, and the evidence, including the reports of special investigators, will probably occupy more than 40 volumes and 14,000 folio pages. The volume containing the report extends to some 1350 folio pages, and is, the largest which has ever been issued [at one time by a Royal Commission. Even the famous report of the New Zealand Land Commission is a mere pamphlet compared with this enormous mass of literature. Naturally the greater part of the evidence and report has little bearing on New Zealand conditions, but 'tiie portion of the report dealing with unemployment is unfortunately of considerable interest, even in the Dominion, and some brief extracts may serve to illustrate the methods of dealing with the evil which recommend themselves to the able men and women who formed the commission. The evils of casual labour are thus described: —“Ip modem' industry the middle-aged are senile and the senile are not employed. Skilled men in their prime are at a premium, but many of our boys reach their prime unskilled, and others, degenerates, never reach any prime at all. There results a steady flow of the young and the middle-aged into the morass of casual labour, which, like any physical morass, is both retentive and defiling. Once absorbed in it, a man can with difficulty, if at all, move out of it or move at all, and whether he struggles [or whether he throws up his hands, tlie tendency is to sink lower.” Charity as a cure foruuemplnyment meets with severe condemnation. “Where money without work has been freely given [the result has been demoralising, and when charity has fallen back on the expedient of “employment relief” the results have been- often little less disastrous.” Municipal relief works and the working of the [Unemployed Workmen Act are also condemned.

AT the head of the list of preventive measures stand some weighty suggestions in connection with education. The Commissioners regard with favour the suggestions that boys should be kept at school until the age of 16 instead of 14; that exemption below this age should be granted only for boys leaving to learn a skilled trade; and that [there should be school supervision till 16 and replacing in school 'of boys not properly employed. Further : There is urgent need of improved facilities for technical eadcation after the present age for leaving school. With a view to the improvement of physique, a continuous system of physical drill should be instituted which might be commenced during school life, and be continued afterwards; and, in order to discourage boys from entering uneduoative occupations which offer no prospect of permanent employment, there should be established, in connection with the Labour Exchange, a special organisation for giving boys, parents, teachers, and school managers information and guidance as to suitable occupations for children leaving school. The general system of elementary education does not escape severe criticism. “A considerable amount of evidence has been submitted to us to the effect that the present system of elementary education is not adapted to the wants of an industrial community. There is a consensus of feeling, 5 in which we ourselves concur, that the present education is too literary and diffuse In its character, and should be more practical. It should be more combined than at present with manual training. It is not in the interests of the country to produce by our system of education a dislike' of manual work and a taste for clerical an:l for intermittent work, when the vast majority of those so educated must maintain themselves by manual labour. If school training is to be an adaptation of the child to its future life and occupation, some revision of the present curriculum of public elementary schools seems necessary. The establishment of labour exchanges occupies a foremost place amongst the permanent iu-

dnstrial proposals. A national system established and maintained by the Board of JTrade is proposed so as to promote the mobility of labour and also provide, for the first time, accurate data and records of 'the amount, character, and intensity of industrial depression and unemployment. The Commission recommended that Government departments and local and public authorities should be enjoined to regularise their work as far as possible, and to endeavour, as far as possible, to undertake their irregular work when the general demand for labour is slack. Dealing with insurance against unemployment the Commissioners suggest the desirability of some scheme on the principle of making an addition or subsidy from public funds to every payment of unemployed benefit made by a trade organisaation to one of its members. The subsidy would not only be paid to existing trade nnions, but also to special trade organisations which it is hoped would spring into existence for purely insurance purposes. One of the most important steps advised is the segregation of the loafer for the purpose of compulsory disciplinary treatment. “The results of., this provision will be, we hope, that the loafer, the person who neglects his family, or who makes them chargeable owing to habits of gambling drink, or idleness, etc., etc., will be submitted to a course of severe discipline and training, which, even if it does not restore the man to a comparative state of industrial efficiency, will, at the least, for a certain period- prevent him from farther demoralisation, and will to some extent deter both himself and others from indulging in the vice or habit responsible for his downfall.”