H.—lla.

SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH AMONG JUVENILES. Although, the centres have been in operation for little more than a year, their significance from the aspect of sociological research has already been demonstrated. The Service has conducted a survey of the leisure-time activities of young people enrolled at the various centres, and the data collected from this survey has made possible a report on this subject which should have important implications in the approach of the State, as well as of religious and recreational bodies, to the problem of national fitness, particularly among school-leavers. Arrangements have also been made through the youth centres for the undertaking of a survey of school-leaving among juveniles and its correlation with economic and social factors. This survey will, likewise, be of value in its social implications. Doubtless, as the centres extend the sphere of operations, the opportunities for sociological research among young people will be correspondingly increased. SCOPE OF ACTIVITIES OF THE EMPLOYMENT DIVISION. The activities of the Employment Division as conducted in the past have been fully set out in previous reports, but it is now appropriate to record, with the repeal of the Employment Promotion Act, the functions that will not lapse with its expiry. The work of the Department will be continued along the two main lines of policy of fostering the promotion of work and industry for the absorption of surplus labour, and the placing in close contact of employers with employees through the medium of the State Placement Service. The following list sets out briefly the operations falling within the main branches of the Department's present functions : — (1) Scheme No. 4a : Assisting farmers on their own properties. (2) Scheme No. 4b : Development work on farming properties calculated to increase the production of primary products. (3) Scheme No. 13 : Subsidization of full-time employment through local bodies and local employing authorities (including City and Borough Councils, County Councils, River and Drainage Boards, and schools and other private bodies not established for profit and whose activities are of a social nature) — (a) Payment of subsidies for full-time work at award rates. (b) Issue of transport orders, &c. (c) Assistance by way of labour subsidies towards— (i) Eradication of ragwort and other noxious weeds. (ii) Rabbit-extermination. (iii) Local-body water and sewerage schemes. (iv) Streets and footpath improvement. (v) Road-construction improvement. (vi) River-improvement and land-drainage. (4) Scheme No. 16 : Youth employment in building trades— (a) Subsidized training in building and related trades. (b) Issue of tools, equipment, Ac. State Placement Service. (a) Operation of State Placement Service (twenty-one special offices). (b) Special campaign for the absorption of youths between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five years. (c) Boy and Girl Employment: Establishment of special section operating in close co-operation with Vocational Guidance Officers of the Education Department (four special offices). (id) Special efforts on behalf of physically disabled men. (e) Vocational training of— (i) Youths between eighteen and twenty-five years of age. (ii) Physically disabled. (iii) Boys and girls. Naturally, the aspects of work as briefly recorded here involve a considerable amount of investigation and detail which necessarily must be associated with the conduct of promotion of employment activities, and the organization as it now exists is required to exercise its fullest capacity to adapt the departmental machinery to all of the requirements of departmental policy. The following activities were taken over by the Social Security Department as from the Ist April, 1939 : — Registration of unemployed; Calculation and payment of sustenance ; Payment of relief through sickness ; Inquiry into the circumstances of applicants for unemployment relief; Operation of State Placement Service in all but the four main centres ; Financial assistance to unemployed women and girls (previously extended to Women's and Girls' Committees from Employment Promotion Fund); and Cash grants for assistance to men proceeding to distant full-time employment. The gold-mining scheme was taken over by the Mines Department as from the Ist April, 1939. The Agriculture Department is continuing the assistance to the tobacco industry as from the Ist April, 1939.

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