Thames Star FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1937. HELPING SUSTENANCE MEN.

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 20037, 18 June 1937, Page 2

Thames Star

FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1937. HELPING SUSTENANCE MEN.

"With malic* toward* none; with charity for all; with firmneM in the right, •■ God gives ua to toe the right."—Lincoln.

Just recently the acting-Minister for Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb, made an appeal for the co-operation of all employers and local bodies to help in placing men at present on sustenance. This appeal should be heeded as far as possible in the interests of the Dominion as a whole. So far as Thames County is concerned, if money was available it is possible that a number of able-bodied men now on sustenance in the district could be given employment on extending the Kauaeranga Road through to Tairua. It is certain that something must be done to provide work for numbers of these men, not only in their own interests but also in those who have to find the sustenance money—those who are in jobs. True it is that the problem of these men presents some baffling feature*. The circumstances force a recognition of the fact that of the men on sustenance there must be a considerable proportion, shut off from private employment and high wages on the one hand, and physically incapacity for labouring jobs on relief works on the other, for whom some special effort must be made to raise their standard of efficiency. One of our most difficult post-war problems Avas the rehabilitation of returned soldiers to fit them for absorption into civil life. Very many of these men had to begin life anew, and it was recognised that their reentry into civilian occupations could not be satisfactorily accomplished unless they were given a preliminary course of training and greater freedom in the terms of their employment. Instructional classes were organised, and the results largely justified the policy. The case of the men on sustenance is somewhat analagous. If we except that proportion of the 19,000 in this category, which may be classed as unemployable, a proportion estimated at about 8000, Ave arc left with some 11,000 men, many in the younger age-groups, aa-liosc case demands special attention. For these men there should be a chance of rehabilitation through coxirses of instruction, suited to their aptitudes, likely to raise their efficiency to a point that would make them eligible for regular employment at standard rates. The cost of this instruction would be a fair charge on the Employment Fund and the people would certainly prefer the money spent in that Avay than in maintaining men in the dismal blind alley of the "dole." Particularly does this observation apply to thousands of young men, who were unable to secure apprenticeships during the depression and who, unless a practical scheme is evolved for their rehabilitation, will keep on drifting. That must be arrested at all costs and the suggestion for the formation of instructional classes seems an eminently desirable manner in Avhich not only to prevent it but to give these young men a fair, fighting chance in the vears to come.