The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1928. POPULATION AND EMPLOYMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1928, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1928. POPULATION AND EMPLOYMENT.

The conclusions contained in tlic report issued nt Home last month of the Industrial Transference Board, which was appointed for the purpose of facilitating the transfer of workers, and in particular of miners, for whom opportunities of employment in their own district or occupation are no longer available, are of first importance, says an English paper, in dealing successfully with the most difficult problem that nt present faces a large section of British industry. In the first place, the Board points out that it would he unwise to take any figure below 200,000 as the permanent labour “surplus” in the coal-mining industry, and mentions that there is a probable permanent surplus in the ship-building, the iron and steel, and the heavy engineering industries. Only for a few of the 200,000 surplus does the Board discern any real prospect of regular work in their own district, hut it does fortunately hold the view that the majority of the miners can he absorbed into industry in the ordinary process of the employment market, if the industrial community will make ur> its mind to give them an opportunity. It therefore appeals—and this is the outstanding feature of the report—to all who are in a position to give employment to realize their individual responsibility in assisting towards the solution of this very grave problem. For the young men tliero are opportunities in the overseas Dominions which can he made open t< much larger numbers, and it would he a distinct encouragement if the formalities associated with a British subject entering the Dominions were reduced to a minimum. The Board points out that regulations imposed are a serious harrier to migration, and in regard to Canada, it is not aware of the economic justification of the policy which does not accept nominations of migrants for industrial employment. With reference to hoys constituting part of the “surplus,” they lia.vo prospects which can be realised with a small effort, but the Board recommends that the policy of juvenile employment centres should he extendjed. Considering the objection that transfers will fill vacancies only at the expense of people in employment, or to the-prejudice of the unemployed in the area, the report claims that “it is quite normal to find simultaneously in the same area unemployment and an unsatisfied demand for labour, because the labour available is not suitable for the vacancies. Discussing the quality of the unemployed workers in the heavy industries, the Board disposes of any idea that they are of indifferent employment value, and are not easily adaptable, and dealing with the possible apprehension that a transfer of miners might lie accompanied by a transfer of some disturbing element, it points out that as a type the British miner is an example to his fellows, and possesses instinctive loyalty to his comrades, and a capacity of similar loyalty to his employers, so long ns unimaginative handling is not permitted to alienate his sympathy. One fact revealed by the report is that married

men over 36 with families constitute more than half the total of those likely to form the surplus, and as a useful, even if limited, contribution to the problem of the older men, the Board recommends the settlement of at least 1000 families on forest holdings during the next three years.