The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1932. AN UNHELPFUL REPORT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 643, 22 December 1932, Page 10

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1932. AN UNHELPFUL REPORT.

' I 'HERE is hardly any limit to the voluntary activities of the community in promoting social and intellectual activities among youths with the object of neutralising the mischief that might be done by enforced idleness during the depression. These activities are already fully organised in Christchurch, which has taken a lead far in advance of any other part of the Dominion in doing what it can to secure the employment of boys, but if every centre were as aoqtive as Christchurch in this matter the problem would still remain unsolved, and for that reason the report of the committee on unemployment, while it is a very great compliment to Christchurch, must be regarded as falling far short of the needs of the hour in a national sense. To begin with, the committee appears to be gravely misinformed regarding the number of boys out of employment. The figure given for New Zealand (3044) is obviously incorrect, for there are 1200 boys in Christchurch alone awaiting employment, apart from those who are staying on at school because of failure to obtain employment, and their number will become progressively greater for a variety of reasons. To say that this is not a task for the consideration of the Government, but is one for local organisations and individual citizens, is a confession of failure. In fact, the committee gives evidence of its inability to grasp the difficulty of the employer in this crisis in suggesting that he ought not to prejudge or condemn the older boys. Employers, generally, have taken boys of all ages far in excess of their reasonable requirements, a fact which was emphasised in the recent campaign in Christchurch, and while it is most desirable that the older hoys should at least be trained and receive preference of employment to avoid the danger of growing to manhood without a training, employers can have little influence on the problem in the matter of age preferences. A WIDER OUTLOOK. ' | 'HE PROBLEM before the committee demanded broader treatment. The most practical thing suggested is a system of farm training for boys, and the development of land in the rough, but this scheme is both indefinite and inadequate, and from the point of view of the average boy such training would probably not be as valuable as a twelvemonth at sea. The committee, in fact, has failed to bring practical suggestions to bear on the problem of both training and employing the youth of the country, and the negative nature of its generalisations is emphasised by the merely passing notice given to Dr Beeby’s twin probationer scheme, upon which no opinion is passed. DEFLATED MORALE. OUITE AS SERIOUS as the financial crisis facing the Russian Government is the psychological deflation of the people under the strain of the Five Year Plan. This spells breakdown. Even those hundreds of thousands of young enthusiasts who were used as shock troops to inspire the workers with the slogans of Utopia, and stimulate them to supreme activity, face blank disappointment in the light of a steady deterioration in living conditions. Another message to-day reveals that this slump in morale has affected not only the rank and file of the workers, but high officials also. It is, indeed, the weakness of a super-plan that it produces nervous exhaustion, and the hope of the future in Russia lies in the spiritual and physical reinvigoration of the people. But that is so dependent upon material conditions that in the present chaotic condition of the national finances the outlook is anything but cheerful. The opposition to Stalin is growing in strength and unless he can placate the peasants by the adoption of a policy acceptable to them his government will feel the full resistance of the hungry determined to hold their own products.