APPRENTICES WHO DEFY AUTHORITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 66, 9 June 1927, Page 3

APPRENTICES WHO DEFY AUTHORITY

A SALUTARY LESSON JUDGE’S SHARP COMMENT Press Association. WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The Arbitration Court disallowed the appeal by Fred Cornish, etn apprentice employed by the Patent Slip Company against his dismissal. Mr. Justice Frazer called attention to the obligations owed by apprentices to their employers. Some boys seemed to have an exaggerated opinion of their own importance, and the sooner they disabused themselves of this idea the better. The Court always was prepared to make allowances for the exuberance of youth, but there was a limit to that sort of thing. In the present case there was a complaint that the lad was unreliable and frequently late for work. “That seems to have been proved beyond doubt,” said the judge, “and the lad’s explanation is very unsatisfactory. Apparently he thinks he can do more or less as he likes, and then come here and talk glibly and get out of it. That sort of thing won’t go down with the Court. There seems to be an impression in his mind that, because he is an apprentice, he has a sure job for five years, and can afford to defy those in authority. The contract does not mean that an apprentice is sure of his job. It means he has a five-years’ job if he conducts himself properly and learns his work in a proper manner, showing reasonable capacity and efficiency. It is just as well that apprentices should bear that in mind.”