ABOUT APPRENTICES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 11, 8 October 1919, Page 9

ABOUT APPRENTICES

SHORTAGE IN SKILLED TRADES SOME OF THE REASONS. Somo remarks on tho subject of the shortago of apprentices in tho skilled trades aro contained in tho annual report of the Department of Labour. Following is an extract from the report:— During tho year a draft Bill has been prepared for consideration (to take the place of tho Act of 1805). The subject of apprentices has during recent years become a contentious one. On the one hand it is urged that greater respousibilitv should be placeo on employers by requiring them to give time off during working hours for attendance at technical' schools, that a system of examination of the work and progress of the apprentice should be instituted, and -so on; the object being to ensure that every apprentice is properly taught and trained from both the practical and the theoretical point of view. On the other hand it is pointed out that apprenticeships, in' the.sense hitherto known, aro becoming obsolete on account of the-in-creasing' use of machinery and the specialisation of work by employing groups of workers en one or two operations, tho result being, so it is claimed, that what has until-recently been a skilled trade requiring four or five years' apprenticeshin - has now become almost unskilled. The boot-manufacturing industry is. an example in which the work formerly learned bv each apprentice in the making department (in five years) is in some Now Zealand factories broken up into at least nine operations, each carried out bv a worker.operating a machine, the use of which he can learn in about three months in the ease of seven machines, and about six months in the other two. In fact: in the United States of America, where the factories are, of course, muchlarser, the manufacture of boots is subdivided into as many as sixty-four operations, each with its own worker employed exclusively on that operation. It is thcreforo suggested that the training of factory ■ workers is to a large extent resolving itself into tho teaching of the use of mechanical appliances.

. The. high specialisation of inciustry such as is referred to nbove respecting the boot trade in New Zealand and the United States raises a question that is worthy of consideration—whether such specialisation is likely to bo conducive to the welfare of. the community. It is, of course., true that competition in industry with other countries and the natural desire of everyone to obtain tho greatest possible output at tho least possible cost of labour demand the utmost use.of machinery and specialisation; but if this feature of trade is allowed to go on without restriction it must tend' to the detriment of-the health and contentment of our workers and to the deterioration of the race.

The whole subject of the training of and the general welfare of the w'orkers in this connection migbt well form the subject of an inquiry by a commission of business and educational men.

The state of affairs above mentioned does not apply to all trades, in several of which- apprenticeships for a. sufficient period of years are still needed. Yet there has been a serious shortage of apnrentices for a considerable time—even before the war—which will apparently result in u shortage of competent workers in the near future. In regard/to the cause of this shortage, I desire to call attention to the fact that the adult workers in many skilled trades eeldom earn more than, if as much as, workers in callings that require no apprentice shins. A similar position exists in Australia, where the apprentice question has engaged the attention of several Commissions set up to inquire into the matter. .

If the desirable state of affairs existing in the United States were in vogue in New Zealand it would of itself no doubt quickly settle the apprentice difficulty. It is not to bo wondered at that bovs hesitate to bind' themselves as apprentices..for a term.-of years at ft;.low rate of wases when they know not only that thev can .immediately earn much higher wages in unskilled occupations without the binding restrictions of apprenticeship, but also that they will probably earn as nvc\ch when they become adults.

The question of so adjusting wages as to bring those of skilled hands into proper proportion with those of unskilled workers is one that appears to require -immediate' attention.

It is pointed out in tables of wages that while such skilled tradesmen as coach workers get Is. (!d. an hour, blacksmiths, bricklayers, engineers, moulders, and furnituremakcrs get Is. tailors Is. ihi., carpenters Is. nd.,, plasterers Is. AM., saddlers Is. k\„ and bootmakers Is. 33d. waterside workers, who are unskilled labourers, receive Is. lOd. per hour on general cargo, 2s, orl. per hour on coal. 2s. 2d. on meat, and 2s. 3d', on superphosphates.