Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1939. A DUTY TO THE YOUNG.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1939, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1939. A DUTY TO THE YOUNG.

A PARTICULARLY practical and timely suggestion was made A by the Principal of Wairarapa College (Mr G. G. Hancox) in „ report, to the Board of Governors on suggestion was that, as so man) skille < - , i> be admitted to the Dominion, the Ministers ’ in „ m-tred to investigate the problem ot speeding up the ti.innn o of our own young people.

Tn a country witli its manufacturing and oilier ata comparatively elementary stage ot importation of a due proportion of key m ' , . statc tradesmen is necessary and desirable. ..m <• - 1 L ~ p iro . P of affairs however, that any country should be nnpoitm 0 lai,,, Zk mid file tradesmen while its own young people are passing into unskilled occupations.

Schemes are afoot at present for the organisation of special and subsidised training which will enable men transfer from unskilled work to skilled trades. Every encourageme t should be oiven to effort on these lines, but it is even moi e nn P olta that the industrial training of youth should be Relied and planned from a standpoint of social and national 1 this been done years ago, even the great de P ress^\'' o f have robbed great numbers of young people m this countij their normal birthright of a fair working opportunity.

No one who has a reasonably extended and familiar knowledge of New Zealand can doubt that there is and has been a general failure, in good times and in bad times, to turn the energy and capacity of the people fully to account m industry, as in some other walks of life. Li our failure to achieve better standards of industrial and genera! economic mobilisation, there is a great waste of first-class human material, with results that are detrimental and demoralising to individuals and to the community.

An orderly investigation would show, that there is vide scope for the methodical development of industrial and other economic training by which the productive capacity of the Dominion and the welfare of its population would alike be advanced immensely. In part, at least, our existing systems ot apprenticeship belong to the dark ages and fail to take anything like adequate account of the modern evolution of industry and of its mechanical equipment.

It was observed at the meeting of the Wairarapa College Board of Governors on Thursday evening that boys who received three vears’ training in skilled trades in technical schools and colleges were given no advantage over those who left primary schools to be apprenticed. This, on the face ol.it, is preposterous and can only mean that the facts of the position have been denied practical consideration. The curtailment ot apprenticeship periods in many trades is both practicable and desirable and although there are details of workshop, factoiy and other industrial experience which cannot be duplicated in any technical school, efficient technical instruction makes an important and essential contribution to the training of a tradesman or other skilled worker. .

The question raised by Mr Haneox demands the serious attention not only of Cabinet Ministers and State Departments, but of all educational authorities, parents’ associations and industrial organisations of both employers and workers. The broad position to be faced is. that the Dominion is wasting a great part of its oncoming youth and by that act is starving itself of the skilled workers needed to forward its industrial and economic development. In the field of production, as in other respects, our national problems of course have their peculiarities. There is always the bugbear of our comparatively small population and limited market. We shall certainly not overcome these disabilities by nerveless drifting, but may reasonably hope to do so by resolute effort calling freely on ingenuity and adaptability.

Mobility and adaptability in a trained labour force—a force capable of varying the tempo of production in one direction o'r another as occasion may demand —are a splendidly effective aid and contribution to economic stability and social security in a country at the stage of development New Zealand has reached, or,' ideed, in a country of much more advanced development. As a community, we have every reasonable opportunity, particularly in the effective training of youth, of achieving the flexible command over production that would go far to ensure continuing prosperity.

The root question involved is that of giving youth a lair working start and opportunity in life. This implies not only an enterprising development of educational preparation tor working life and a drastic overhauling of obsolete conditions of appi-ent iceship, but the utilisation of all the youngsters who can be trained in these ways to their own best advantage and that of their country. Only bad management or an absence of management will "account for the state of affairs in which so many young New Zealanders of good quality and capabilities are at present herded into unskilled and blind-alley occupations. It is or should be the business of every good New Zealander to help in remedying this condition of national disorganisation. Some useful headway may be made in that direction hy following up the suggestion made on Thursday evening by the Principal of Wairarapa College.