YOUNG MEN

Hokitika Guardian, 30 May 1932, Page 8

YOUNG MEN

PLACE IN BUSINESS.

THE PRINCE'S CONTENTION

(By TeJegraplx—Per Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, May 27

In urging that young men should be given their chance: in business and hold key positions at an earlier age, the Prince of Wa/les voiced a sentiment that finds a ready echo in New Zealand.'Several men holding responsible business posts in Christchurch, when approaching on th e subject yesferday morfiing, agreed with the Prince’s contention that a man who was not capable at thirty never would be, with the single reservation - that experience entered into the matter, and often full efficiency came only later on in life.

“The argument applies to England to a much greater extent than to the colonies,” said the manager of one large retail house, who attained re- | sponsibility himself at a comparatively I early age. “In New Zealand, if a I man is any good he generally has a responsible post before he is thirty. v “The tendency for world over,” he continued, “is for old men who have achieved some business success to hang on to their positions a,s long as pos-_ sible, well after they have reached and passed their prime. On a recent visit to England I wanted to see a man on some important business. It was e'oven o’clock, in tile. ■ morning, ■ and when T was ushered into his room I found him,. with hi? clvair tilted back, j comfortably and musically asleep. It j "would have taken some time to awaken lr’m and get his mental processes | functioning, so I took my business j somewhere else. A young man would not have been.asleep. j “In Great Britain young men often , do not start work seriously till they are 23 or even older, and that is not,| a. good thing. A colonial in England can sense this difference, and, really, it is against the interests of,everyone.

DRIVING FORCE GONE,

“There is another factor that has a great healing on the argument. Many of the older men have had a bad battering on the financial side during post war years. They will never bo driving forces again.. The elderly man •who has had a comparatively easy business career cannot adjust himself to harder conditions. That is where the young man shines. He gobs in young, and lias to take conditions as he finds them. If there is a way out, he will lend it: His mind is not hampered and restricted by force of habit, and he will look for the solution. He has to find it, or die. The man who is not will- , ing to risk the responsibility, of taking the big job at thirty will find that the chances are not, so numerous at forty, and when fifty is reached, lie will find i that he is on the shady side of the street.”. j

A big proportion of the' major business concern® in-Christchurch are managed by comparatively young men,, and right throughout, in each department, the policy, of taking a good man young and giving him a chance is becoming increasingly apparent. Of several business men interviewed, none argued against its wisdom though all insisted on the understandable fact that the individual personality of the man is. really the governing factor. It seems tliat the blind 1 relief that a man is not capable of management or responsibility. till the years have greyed his hair and rooted his convictions is definitely a thing erf the past.

A DOCTOR’S ARGUMENT

One Christchurch doctor took the argument a stage further. “I agree with the Prince wholeheartedly-,”, he said, “and moreover I hope that the nations will not send doddering old ‘has-been’ statesmen to the Ottawa Conference. It makes one tired to read that the business of this and that conference has broken down or been held up on account of the illness of so-and-so, or postponed while the other one pays a week’s visit to some health resort to build up his easily exhausted strength. No man who is over fifty 'should go to this conference, and some under forty would be an asset.* If one cannot carry on with tho arduous work, then he. should have someone with him who can step into- his shoes.”