EMPLOYMENT FOR YOUTHS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 February 1929, Page 2

EMPLOYMENT FOR YOUTHS

PROBLEM DISCUSSED. WELLINGTON CONFERENCE. WELLINGTON, Feb. 5. A conference of various local bodies and the Labour Department considered the problem of finding employment for youth who have just left school. After listening to an address by Mr Rowley, secretary of the Labour Department, who presided, there was a discussion. Summing this up, Mr Rowley said that obviously vocational guidance was not going to increase the number of jobs offering. He was convinced that something was needed on the lines advocated by one of the speakers. Boys should be trained as they are at Flock House and assisted on the land, for farming presented practically an unlimited market. It might be made to absorb more labour than any other industry. Mr Bromley, (Trades and Labour Council) moved:—“That the Government be recommended to raise the age of leaving school one year, financial relief being given to parents in necessitous cases.” It was more economical, he said, for industry to employ only efficient and profitable labour and for the Government to keep children at school, than to pay unemployment doles to adults. The setting up of a Royal Commission was advocated by Mr Campbell, who said the meeting had not got sufficent data before it to express any opinion as to the effect of raising the school leaving age. A committee to investigate unemployment, juvenile unemployment being part of the general problem, was already in existence, said Mr Bromley,

but it was not functioning owing to the political upheaval. To set up a Royal Commission was the surest way of killing anything. Ilis proposal, although not effecting a permanent cure, would do something. Mr Bromley’s motion, which was seconded by Mr Cornwell, was lost whon put to the meeting. Mr Campbell’s motion was amended to read: “That the Government should be urged to set up a committee to investigate the problem,” and was carried. Mr Cornwell (Trades and Labour Council) then moved that it should be a recommendation to the Government that the hours of the working week should he reduced In number, this being the only sane and sensible solution of the world problem of unemployment. In seconding this motion, Mr Bromley said that overtime would have to be prohibited, too. This motion was lost, one of those present saying that it would come in time, but it was five years too soon.