WORK FOR BOYS.

Wairarapa Age, 22 December 1932, Page 5

WORK FOR BOYS.

REPORT BY MESSRS. SMITH Al© ANSELL. BEST OPENINGS AVAILABLE ON LAND. SUGGESTED DEVELOPMENT SCHEME. WELLINGTON, December 21. The conclusions reached by Mr. A. E. Ansell M.P. for Chalmers and Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P. for New Plymouth, as a result of their recent investigation of the juvenile unemployment problem, are contained in a comprehensive report they have prepared dealing with many phases of the subject. The report has already been submitted to Cabinet and a precis of it, together with the recommendations made, was released to-day. After pointing out that secondary industries offered slender chances for the absorption of boys, the committee considers that agriculture offers the most promising field for the employment of young men. A land settlement scheme is recommended whereby Crown land would be developed by suitable young men, who would ultimately become settlers. During its investigations, the committee noted the very definite aversion of the average boy to take up farming pursuits. In discussing an educational bias which leads boys away from the land, the committee mentions that whereas languages and mathematics in the senior free place examination enable a candidate to receive 400 marks for each the maximum marks for chemistry, 'botany and agriculture are only 200. It is suggested that the latter should carry the same pass marks as languages and other subjects. “We are convinced that this problem is one of the most vital facing the people of New Zealand -to-day, and is in fact the most acute human problem with which this generation has been called upon to deal,” state Messrs Smith and Ansell NATION’S GREATEST ASSET. After expressing high appreciation of the public-spirited effort which has already led to a measure of success, they gfive figures indicating what has already been done and the extent of the remaining problem. These figures show that boys registered as unemployed total 5908. Of this number, 2850 have been placed in employment, the classification being as follows:—Placed on farms, 1172; in trade, 421; in shops and offices, 593; miscellaneous, 664. This leaves a total of 3044 still on the unemployment roll. These unemployed boys are the nation’s greatest asset Responsibility for dealing with thia problem is one which concerns every citizen. It is not * task that can or should be borne by the Government but one that essentially attaches itself, outside the parent, tn local organisations and Individual citizens. As a result of our inquiries we are convinced that an organised committee of citizens (representative of every walk in life) in the various centres can deal most effectively with the problem. There is no comparable substitute. A SUGGESTED SCHEME.

The report recommends that in each centre where the problem exists, there should be established a general council representing citizens and representative of all interests, dealing with matters of policy and the extension of activities. Working in close association with the general council should be an executive committee consisting of the convenors of sub-committees, which would undertake special duties. The activities of the sub-committees should cover: (1) Physical development; (2) general educational development; (3) vocational and pre-vocational development; (4) athletic development; (5) social development. An especially distressing feature of the problem, states the committee, is the large number of apprentices who have uncompleted periods of apprenticeship contracts and who are now unemployed, for the reasons either that there is no work or training jn the shops or factories where they were employed, or that their employers, either individuals or firms, have gone out of business on account of general trade depression. It is pointed out that unless a remedy is found, a most serious condition will arise when trade becomes normal and the'demand for skilled men increases, because skilled men will then have to be imported and our own boys will become unskilled workers. The normal solution is work, but if there is none available, a substitute must be found. Technical training can provide a stepping stone to regular employment when industry revives. The country may not at present be able to employ these boys, but it can still less afford to let them drift. TOWN AND COUNTRY JOBS. A careful investigation of opportunities for boys in town occupations was made by the committee, who declare that at no time in the history of New Zealand had commerce and industry offered such slender chances for the absorption of boys on completing their school life. The committee stresses the importance of land occupations in view of New Zealand's almost complete financial dependence on returns from exported products of the land. Various organisations working for the welfare of workless boys have been able to place a number of boys on farms, but it is considered that something further should bo done for them, in order that they might ultimately become estabJi shed as farmers, rather than remain farm workers. The time has arrived for evolving a definite land settlement scheme, whereby young men who have completed a course at agricultural college or an agricultural high school, and have obtained a certificate of approval from such colleges or schools, and who have worked for a period of not less than two years on a farm or station and have shown by their diligence and competency that they will prove to 'be efficient fanners, shall be given every encouragement and facility to make good and ultimately become farmers themselves, instead of remaining farm workers or seeking other avenues of employment. Such a scheme would bo the means of placing on the land the most desirable and efficient type of fanner and would prove an incentive to boys to enter agricultural life, thus ultimately creating a national asset Which could not be too highly assessed —(PA.) b J