“LOST SOULS”

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19691, 26 September 1935, Page 9

“LOST SOULS”

ISOLATED IN CAMPS; PLIGHT OF YOUNG MENFARM WORK WAITING. “The wages of boys in the city have shown a tendency to increase from 10s to anything up to £i weekly,” states what Is practically an Interim report of the Wellington Boy Employment Committee for six months, adopted at a meeting of the committee. “There is no doubt that the efforts and negotiations on the part of the officers of the committee have been factors in helping to bring about this improved condition. “On the farm side of the work, it is now practically impossible to And boys boys willing to take up employment in the country.. This is explained by the fact that the average -city hoy now has no necessity to look to the country for employment, and many of those who may have been willing to go on farms have been prejudiced against farm work because ’Of the low wages offering, and the reports which have been circulated regarding the general conditions obtaining on some • dairy farms. Another drawback is the seasonal nature of farm w'ork, and it will be readily admitted that under present conditions It is too much to expect any lad with ambition to go to the country for what might prove to be temporary work at a low wage when there* are better opportunities offering amidst the more congenial and remunerative conditions of the city. Shortage of Farm Labour. “The shortage of farm labour has been the subject of comment throughout the country, and It would seem that either immigration or the single men’s camps must be looked to to And the necessary labour. Better working and living conditions and some guarantee of continuity of employment will need to be' introduced If young men are going to bo induced to leave their camp communities to go on farms. The Auckland scheme of subsidising boys on farms and by deferred pay forcing a saving plan has enabled boys to eventually start out for themselves, and is one worthy of consideration. "It is with no little satisfaction that the oommittee will learn of the investigation now being pursued by the Unemployment Board, in the matter of ‘the welfare of the younger olass of unemployed men between the ages of 20 to 25, who have become a special problem.’ Doubtless this . investigation will extend to the advisability of further maintaining, the single " meii’s camps, at least for the men within these age categories, many of whom, two years ago; were on the books of this committee as unemployed youths.

Forgotten By Their Fellows "Expedient th'ough these camps have been in the crisis, and efficiently conducted as they have been for the. most part, the question now arises as to how much longer the various centres of New Zealand shall continue to isolate in these camps some of their younger manhood. As time goes on the chance of absorption in productive and remunerative employment wilJbecome less and less and the places of these men will be taken by the younger ones coming on. ‘Out of sight out of mind,' these camps as far as the general run of citizens are concerned may easily become ‘communities of lost souls,’ and their occupants, forgotten by their fellows, may find no place in the regular scheme, of things outside the labour camps. “Surely the condition cf these younger men should become a charge, not merely upon the publio purse, but also upon the conscience of the community. The greatest danger seams to be that the younger men in these camps may ‘settle down’ to their lot and that their communities, in evading social responsibility, may simply forget them. These men are exposed also to all kinds of subversive propaganda. Now that Junior labour is almost unobtainable, the time may have arrived when employers might be prevailed upon to give these men a certain degree of preference. It is a grave reflection on the present condition that while we have these camps distributed throughout the country, the farmers are crying out for • farm labour.”