FUTURE OF OUR BOYS

Southland Times, Issue 20082, 20 January 1927, Page 3

FUTURE OF OUR BOYS

SUITABLE OCCUPATIONS. AVOIDING BLIND ALLEYS. “The question of steering boys just leaving school into the most suitable occupations and providing skilled labour for the future in order that our industries may be adequately provided for is one that affects the general public; and it is a question that the public ought, as far as possible, to take a keen interest in, because it is a subject which, after all, vitally affects not only the boys, but also all classes of the people.” This remark is made in a statement by Mr F. W. Rowley, Secretary of the Labour Department, in reference to the future career of boys reaching the end of their school years. In pursuance of the provisions of the Apprentices Act the Department of Labour .asked head teachers of primary schools to submit reports on all boys leaving school at the end of the year, and the boys and their parents have been invited by the department to indicate the kind of employment desired to be taken up, the idea being that the department should assist the boys as far as possible in obtaining employment in suitable occupations, and especially to steer'them into skilled trades, and to avoid their taking-up blind-alley occupations. Mr F. W. Rowley, Secretary of Labour, who has taken special interest in the question of assisting boys in starting on their life’s work, in his statement on the subject says the department had received reports from head teachers upon 730 boys leaving school at the end of the year. Of this number 335 were proceeding to secondary schools; and the remainder had specified the occupations they wished to take up. So far, however, not one employer had approached the department for boys, although advertisements had been placed in the newspaper advising that boys had applied, and asking employers to communicate with the department with the view of employing some of these boys. AWARD RESTRICTIONS. “We are also writing to the organisations of employers in the different skilled trades, asking them to use their best endeavours with their members to have a number of boys taken on,” continues the statement. “No doubt employers in some cases will say that they are barred from taking on boys by reason of the restrictions to the number of apprentices to journeymen. The quota allowed by the Court of Arbitration has been filled in only two trades, namely, cabinetmaking and plumbing, in respect of which we have 44 boys wishing to take up cabinetmaking and 18 wishing to take up plumbing. These cannot, of course, be placed; but in the other occupations there is nothing in the proportion of apprentices provision to • prevent the boys from being engaged.

“Taking carpentering, for instance, there are 70 boys desiring to be carpenters and joiners, and there is room for 124 in the Wellington district. There are 28 boys who wish to be employed in the engineering trade, and the employers in the Wellington district could take on 331. Twenty-one boys desire to take up plastering, and employers could take on ten of t-hem. It might be worth while to explain that it is not the Act. itself that places restrictions upon the employment of boys, but the proportion of apprentices is fixed by the Arbitration Court under the Act. The court may fix the proportion at any time it thinks best. No doubt the projiortion fixed by the court has been filled up in some trades, but, as already stated, the fact remains that there is room for the employment of 247 boys in the Dunedin district. EMPLOYERS CAN HELP. “We cannot, of course, expect employers to take on all these boys whether they want them or not, although there is provision in the Act empowering the Arbitration Court to require employers in any particular industry to train their fair share of the journeymen of the future,” continues Mr Rowley. “It may be explained that this provision was inserted in the Act at the suggestion of several representative employers themselves, they being of opinion that while some employers endeavour to carry out their moral obligations by training up a number of apprentices to meet the requirements of the future, there are other employers who make no attempt to do so. There has been no instance yet where the court has taken steps to require the employment of a minimum number of ap- ‘ 1. ■ mployers, on the one hand, and the v. i .\.-nen, on the other, are not so vitally interested. As one employer has put if, the employers in any industry carry on their business with whatever labour is available, whether it is good or bad, and they make their charges and their profits according to what they have to pay; and so they carry on, simply making the best of the labour and material that is available; but it is the public which has to pay.”