UNEMPLOYED BOYS

Wairarapa Daily Times, 22 December 1932, Page 3

UNEMPLOYED BOYS

COMPREHENSIVE REPORT. W ELL IX CrT OX, We(l n esd ay. Tlio 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 today. A land settlement scheme is recommended, whereby Crown land would be deevloped 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 subject, the maximum marks for chemistry, botany and agriculture arc 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 Xew Zealand today, and is, in fact, the most acute human problem with which this generation has been called upon to deal,’’ state Messrs Smith and Ansell. “Figures show that boys registered as unemployed total 5008. 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, 503; miscellaneous, 6(54. This leaves a total of 3044 still on the unemployment roll. As a. result of our enquiries, 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.’’ 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 cither that there is no work or training in 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.