EMPLOYMENT OF YOUTHS.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 426, 27 May 1902, Page 2

EMPLOYMENT OF YOUTHS.

OPINION OF ARBITRATION COURT

By Telegraph—Press Association,

Wellington, last night. The award of the Arbitration Court in the grocery dispute says that as to the request that the Court should limit the number of youths to bo employed in grocers’ shops, tho Court knew of no sufficient reason which could justify them in so doing. It was the Court’s duty to see that the avenues for suitable work wero not closed to the youth of the colony. In practically every occupation the regulation of which had been submitted to the Court it had been asked to exclude youths beyond a limited proportion to the adults employed. That proportion was generally stated at either one youth to three adults employed, or one youth to four. Thoughtful working men must recognise that if these boys were debarred from obtaining suitable employment in trades from which there was no natural right for their exclusion a wrong was done to those boys, and the difficulties surrounding tho bringing up of a family were very much increased! The interests of the colony demanded that there must be no improper shutting out from legitimate means of earning a' livelihood of the youth of tho colony, and the Court thought it was amply justified, in the interests of the working classes themselves, in again emphasising this principle.