DIFFICULT PROBLEM

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1934, Page 5

DIFFICULT PROBLEM

PROVIDING WORK FOR BOYS IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH/ SIR GEORGE JULIUS’ OPINION. In spite of a good season and the advance in the price of wool, Australia and New Zealand are by no means out of the economic depression yet, according to Sir George Julius, president of the Australian Commonwealth Research Council. “In my opinion,” he said, in an interview, “neither country has yet begun to touch the gravest of all problems that face them—that of the impossibility of finding employment for the great majority of the boys now leaving school. “It is time to stop guessing and to survey facts; We are too prone to jump first and look afterwards. We need to forget preconceived ideas about the causes of our troubles and to look facts clearly in the face. It is obvious that unless some extraordinary phenomenon takes place in the immediate future it will be quite impossible to absorb into secondary industries or to find employment for more than a tithe of the boys and girls yearly leaving school. People have been encouraged in the past to come to the cities, but there is no hope for secondary industries being expanded sufficiently to absorb those seeking work. The position simply invites those who cannot find’work to ‘go red,’ and their parents to go red, too, and is enough to wreck any country. MAKE COUNTRY LIFE BETTER. “We must make country life more attractive, so as to get the unemployed out of the cities where employment is not possible. Wages may not be as high in the country as they are in the towns, and conditions may not be as attractive, but at any rate there is a home, security, and a living can be found in the country, and- it is to the country that we must direct our unemployed city dwellers. “If secondary industries were developed to such an extent in Australia and New Zealand that all the unemployed were absorbed and the countries became selfsupporting and independent of England, which, as a matter of fact, is hardly possible, England might well retaliate and, saying that we were' not playing the game by her, put her unemployed men on the land and develop her agricultural resources to such an extent that the market for New Zealand’s and Australia’s produce would vanish. The two ' latter countries would then inevitably become bankrupt—which some might think a lesser evil than at present being confronted.” Research in these days of unemployment, Sir George Julian declared, was vitally important. But in some quarters there was a cry that in hard times money should not be “wasted” on research. But research work, which was primarily concerned with improving production from the land, was doubly important in these times when the whole solution of our difficulties lay in developing our produce to the land’s fullest capacity. FATAL TO LAG BEHIND. "New Zealand and Australia,” he added, “are faced with quotas and a competitive market. Our produce must be as good as, if not better than, our competitors’ if we are to hold our own. It will be fatal to either country to lag behind; the handicap of long distances from our markets is great enough as it is. Research must be intensified. Our prosperity depends upon the efficiency of our products, and we cannot afford not to keep that efficiency at the highest possible level. In other words, we cannot afford to allow research to go by the board.” Research work in Australia, continued Sir George Julius, co-operated with industry to a larger extent than appeared the case in New Zealand. This and the success of such work were largely due to the fact that research in Australia was divorced from political control much more than was the case in New Zealand. Industry was always suspicious of the Governments, and would not put up sums of money for essential research if that money was to be under political control. It would be in New Zealand’s interests to co-ordinate as completely as possible the research work being carried out by various State Departments so as to avoid overlapping. It was futile to have several departments working along the same lines. .The Commonwealth Research Council was fortunate in having £lOO,OOO for the sole purpose of training research students This money it could spend as it pleased, and the practice was to select graduates of ability and send them abroad for a couple of years. They were not guaranteed employment upon their return, but they gave the council the option of employing them. In practically every case they were employed, for they had been trained with a particular purpose in view. Such men were found to be better than research workers imported from other countries, for they were Australians by birth who loved their country and knew her problems. They were employed at a salary of £4OO for the first year, and were independent of the Public Service Board.