The DOMINION THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1919. METHODS THAT WILL NOT PAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 12, 9 October 1919, Page 4

The DOMINION THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1919. METHODS THAT WILL NOT PAY

The whole position in regard to trade apprenticeship in this country is so unsatisfactory that there_ is much to bo said lor a suggestion made in the annual report of the Department of Labour. The report observes that a commission of business and educational men might well be set up to inquire into the training of apprentices and "the general welfare of the workers in this connection." On all grounds apprenticeship well deserves methodical consideration. Apart from the fact that the human factor is infinitely the most important of all the factors that enter into organised production, conditions of trade training have a very material bearing on the general welfare of the population. It is well known that. apprenticeship conditions in this country leave a great deal to be desired. Part of the remedy that is needed may be found in the compulsory attendance of apprentices at technical classes during working hours, but such measures by no means cover all the ground. It is necessary not only that apprentices should be better trained, but that they should be trained in greater numbers, and it may be found that the cnief difficulty to bo overcome is that of securing year by year such, an addition to the ranks of apprentices in training as will ensure an adequate supply of skilled tradesmen. Although there is scope'for ilseful work by a commission in setting out the. facts comprehensively nnd in detail, it is already obvious that as time goes on boys in New Zealand are showing themselves less and less inclined to enter skilled trades, and this- can mean nothing else than that a large proportion are contenting themselves with unskilled and relatively less useful, because less productive, work. Just emphasis is laid in the Labour Department report upon one of tlie chief factors.accounting for this unpromisinir state of affairs. It is pointed out that in this country and in Australia "the adult workers in many skilled trades seldom earn more than, if as much as, workers in callings that require no apprenticeships." Some of the detail anomalies in Wk connection are ex-traorc-inary. For instance, the lowest rate per hour paid to waterside workers—ls. TOd.—is higher than the award minimum in anv branch of the building trade. In both of these occupations there is a certain amount of broken time, and possibly the wharf labourer's employment is less regular than that of the average man engaged in the building trade. But manifestly, an adjustment under which a bigger reward is allotted to.unskilled than to skilled labour imposps a heavy penalty on enterprise. It - might • almost be said that it sets a premium on incompetence. It is hardly to be expected that either boys or their parents will look with favour upon an apprenticeship involving years of painstaking effort and a comparatively low rate of wages when the qualified tradesman is apt to find himself' badly off in the matter of wages as compared with the average unskilled labourer. Ordinary justice demands somp such distinction between the two classes of labour as is drawn in the United States, whore skilled workers earn from 50 to nearlv 100 pe? cent, more than unskilled men. If its results are to be of any value an investigation of apprenticeship conditions in Now Zealand must give full heed to tlm comparative rates of pay in skilled and unskilled occupations. Important as it is, a fair adjustment as between one section of workers and another is. of course, far from being the only question To pnt skilled labour in the relatively unfavourable position it occupies in New Zealand is not.only to discourage initiative and enterprise and countenance injustice, but in a, wide sense to block general pro-m-ess. The unskilled workers in .this country have succeeded by militant methods in setting an exaggerated and disproportionate, value on their daily labour. In the end no section of the co'mmunitv will benefit by a policy under which skilled labour is denied the fair and reasonable incentive which would keep its ranks well filled. Such a policy of course limits production and penalises the whole community by progressively increasing the cost of living. Developed to its logical conclusion it would carrv the country back to a condition little removed from barbarism. One of the chief differences between a civilised and a barbaric State is that the former is served by a vastly, greater proportion of skilled workers, and so, with the added advantage of industrial organisation, is enabled to produce an enormous body of wea,lth with b"'iefit to its. whole population. Skilled workers play an allimportant part in the process, and any State which discourages such workers and depletes' their numerical strength bv treating them .with ln«s consideration than unskilled labour is destroying its present and future prospcritv. The transient bennfits conferred meantime on unskilled labour count for little enough by comparison. "The gravity" of these considerations as they apply in New Zealand is limited only by the fact that primary production bulks large in our total national activities, and that the disproportionate reward of skilled and unskilled labour is mosi glaringly apparent • in _ secondary and transport industries. This country, however, needs a free expansion of manufacturing and othev secondary industries as well as of primary production to give it rounded development and fully assured prosperity. It cannot hope (o ah f nin such development until skilled labo'ir is given the relativ plaiy. to which it if entitled and which it must be iri"en if it is to perform ir« apnointed nnrt. Without pvoiud'w to Ibi' fact tlvit the training of apprentice's calls in various w ays fov dntaiW] consicWii.tion and recnlatinn it. is possible in nerco hroad'v vi'h the. contention ndvanieil bv the Bwet.>.ry for T-i----l-- ; » his reiv.rl IW,: J'Tf the rlAyiivlilo s'ate of affairs evistincr in tli". United Strifes l>. votrarrte the vUtive wvnnont nf Skilled and u ,, - o'.-illc' lfbonri were in vnirii" in T>Tp,w Zealand it wnuld of itself, nn doubt, niuck'lv soltlo. the annrnnttVe difficulty." Addinsr tn *h> Hint m solution of the apprenticeship prob-

lcm would remove one of the most formidable obstacles to industrial progress and expansion, the whole question stands out as one that calls most urgently for practical attention.