UNEMPLOYMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 178, 21 March 1932, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT

4 PROBLEM OF YOUTH BOYS' WHOLE FUTLTRE GRAVELY ENDANGERED BY ENFORCED IDLENESS. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH REPORT At the request of the Public Questions Committee, of General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, of New Zealand, a sub-committee of economists under the convenorship of Dr. J D.. Salmond, has submitted to the Assembly the following report on unemployment as it affects young people. "The committee has endeavoured to think concretely on this complex and baffling problem, particularly as it concerns our young people. It feels that as the public service is ciosed for the time being to cadets, and the teaching profession to prohationers, and as industry can absorb very few apprentices and learners, the community should accept some responsibility for our young people. It considers that all yourrg people either wholly or partially unemployed should be required to register at a juvenile employment bureau, and "that vocational guidance should be an intregal part of our system of national education. Along with this, continuation schools with definite technical and agricultural bias should be run in conjunction with our present high schools and technical schools. The committee is of opinion that the community has a elaim on the uresent staffs of schools

and the teachers who are on part-time work, and that our school system should he sufficiently elastic and flexible to meet the needs of the present emergency. All sections of the community must co-operate in providing facilities for unplaced boys to occupy themselves profitably, and so maintain self-respect. Boys Leaving School "The most serious aspect of the unemployment situation is the position of boys leaving school. At the age of enthusiasm they "Ure damped by the realisation that they are not wanted by the world of industry. Mr. G. M. Keys, Y.M.C.A., vocational guidance officer, writes : Tt is tragic to note the detrimental and disheartening effect such a period of unemployment has had on lads whom I have been endeavouring to help over a period of perhaps two years. The alertness and enthusiasm has disappeared; they feel they are not wanted anywhere, and a definitely anti-social framfi of mind is taking* possession

of them. The strain and stress of adolesence is a serious enough problem without the added problem of unemployment. I have come across cases where crime and even suicide have been contemplated as a xesult of such a combination of circumstances. The vital problem is to find something for the boys to do. The moral effect of giving a boy work which will enable him to earn some money is far and away greater than the average persons realises. In some instances employers have been convineed that it is in the inter&sts of the community as a whole that they should try and find something for these lads to do, even though they might have been able to manage without them. "The committee is pleased to report that Church people are much concerned over the whole problem, of unemployment, and in all the centres are rendering good service. We realise that the genesis of our trouble is to a large extent overseas, and until conditions there show signs of a return to stability our efforts must be concentrated on endeavours to minimise the repercussions of the worldwide crisis. State's First Duty "We also have to admit that as a people we have been living beyond our real ineome, gambling on the inflated prices we have been receiving for our primary products. However, as Christian people we stand for a minimum of economic security for all who are willing to render useful service. "V^e feel that character development and creative work are so much bound up together that if a person is denied the opportunity for lengthy periods of expressing himself in socially significant work, he loses all sense of self-respect and of responsibility. It is for the Church to show that there is a better way than subsidising idleness, and that apart from the true way of service of each for all there can he no real and lasting prosperity. "The first duty of a Christian State is to see that each of its members, if physically able, gets a chance to earn t his own living. To feed, clothe, and house an able-bod:ed person and not give that person, a chance to earn his food, clothing, and shelter is transgressing every law of good government. Idleness, voluntary or involuntary, leads to inefficiency and disaster. In a new country like New Zealand there is plenty of work waiting to be done, but if New Zealand is to blossom as the rose it is to he accomplished by no magic wand, by no mere wishing. ilt requires the work, the energy, the enthusiasm of every member of the State, and no State can he healthy till it allows a chance for every one of its members to do his share of work, to earn his living, and assist the general weal."