The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1927. APPRENTICES AND UNEMPLOYMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 9, 1 April 1927, Page 8

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1927. APPRENTICES AND UNEMPLOYMENT

THERE is nothing better in good intention throughout the industrial world than the Reform Government’s legislation for promoting the employment and training of apprentices to skilled trades. But in practice nothing could be nearer to a pathetic failure. The Minister of Labour virtually says so, and it may he inferred that he is in the best position for knowing the results of the Apprentices Act of 1923, which superseded the oldfashioned legislation of the Dominion’s pioneers. Of course, the Hon. G. J. Anderson does not blame the modei-n enactment for the present muddle, and he has taken due care to disclaim any responsibility for a lamentable situation. The machinery of the Act is excellent, but it has not worked as well as was anticipated by those v;ho constructed it and gave it movement. It has been admitted frankly by the Minister that the position to-day in respect of the employment of apprentices is anything but satisfactory. It is, indeed, deplorable. As the Minister informed a conference of master builders at Wellington yesterday there is room in the capital city alone for the employment of a hundred additional apprentices in the carpentering trade, but it is not possible to find employers willing to take them. Nor is the trouble confined to the district most closely under Ministerial attention. Similar circumstances prevail proportionately in other centres and in respect of other trades. The extent of its prevalence is one of the principal reasons why so many boys are being prepared for the Public Service as a sheltered industry and a refuge from industrial stress. It is not altogether surprising, though it is an economic scandal, that some 82,000 persons have found employment in State and local government service at an annual cost of £18,500,000. Public service offers a better security of tenure than that offered by industry. In view of the disappointing results of the Apprentices Act the Minister of Labour has given independent consideration to the question of remedial measures. And Mr. Anderson, with a bold flight into the high zone of statesmanship, has come to the conclusion that if employers persist in their refusal to train apprenlices to skilled trades the State will have to assume the task of industrially teaching the youth of the Dominion. The Government as a whole will be grateful for Mr Anderson’s explanation that the views he has expressed were entirely his own and given without any consideration by his colleagues. It would have been more within the restricted range of practical politics to have aimed at securing the co-operation of employers and industrialists in an essential effort for a quicker development of manufacturing industries. One of the great hindrances to the dependable employment and efficient training of apprentices is the excessive number of small industrial establishments in each centre, each carrying too great a load of overhead costs, and all scrambling for a living behind a wall of fiscal protection. Amalgamation with mass production would cheapen the cost of manufacture, reduce the selling price, and increase employment of New Zealanders by increasing the demand for New Zealand goods.

“MISS NEW ZEALAND 1927 ”

BEAUTY competitions, as such, are disappointing, and from many points of view undesirable. The winners are for a while feted and made the subjects of adulation; then they are dropped from sight and resume their normal lives, often as discontented as they are disillusioned. The point about the contest which will he conducted by The Sun in conjunction with the Fuller-Hayward and J. C. Williamson’s theatres to discover a “ Miss New Zealand” for 1927 is that it will seek primarily a girl who has the ability to make a film star. New Zealand is not. represented on the screen by any actress of note, but with all the latent talent here available there is no reason why this should long remain the case. Physical beauty, of course, is requisite for a film star, but along with this gift must be histrionic talent, energy and ambition. It is such a combination, embodied in one New Zealand girl, that will be sought in this competition. The invitation to compete in this contest is extended to all New Zealand girls. The five finalists—Miss Auckland, Miss Wellington, Miss Canterbury, Miss Otago and Miss Southland—will he elected by popular vote, and from these five will be selected the most suitable screen “type,” who will be sent to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Culver City, U.S.A., with a chaperon, on a definite contract to make at least one picture at a salary of £25 a week.

This competition will not be a mere parade of real and imaginery beauty for the questionable honour of being acclaimed the most beautiful. It will be a test of merit and will offer to at least one New Zealand girl an opportunity of taking her place among the famous film stars of the world.

THE SAME OLD STORY

IT is to be feared that Archbishop Julius did not obtain his impression that the British workmen “are not earning their wages” from actual observation of the British workman at his job, but from the off-hand judgment of certain people in Britain who do not accomplish a great amount of labour themselves, and who cannot bring themselves to believe that it is possible for others to do the fair thing. It is the same old Tory story —“ The same old song they sing.” The only surprising thing about it is that such a man as Archbishop Julius could have been persuaded to repeat it. According to the pessimistic English Conservative, the British worker never earns his wages. According to his father, and to his forefathers far back, the British worker never did. The unchangeable moan of his class is that the British worker is a “dud” and that the country is “going to the dogs.” That, of course, explains why Britain evolved from a “roughly tilled farm” to stand foremost among the manufacturing nations of the earth ; why she became the greatest exporter and trader among the nations, why she possesses the greatest mercantile marine in history, why her machinery and other manufactured products are easily first in quality among all the world producers—because “the British workman doesn’t earn his wages!” Was ever parrot-cry so ridiculous’? This “not-as-good-as-they-used-to-be” is a farrago of foolishness. The wonder is that, being so continuously subjected to such defamatory insults, the British workman does as much as he does for so little return in either cash or thanks.