TRAINING OF BOYS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 783, 2 October 1929, Page 7

TRAINING OF BOYS

REORGANISATION SUGGESTED PROBLEM OF APPRENTICES Press Association WELLINGTON, Tuesday. When the Estimates for the Department of Labour were considered in the House this evening Mr. D. Jones (Mid-Canterbury) emphasised the importance of training boys for trades, and urged that the whole question of apprenticeship should be investigated. The Leader of the Labour Party, Mr. H. E. Holland, pointed out that at the present time less than 50 per cent, of the number of apprentices allowed by law were employed in New Zealand. Labour • members urged that the whole department should be reorganised. The Minister of Labour, Hon. W. A. Veitcb, stated that he had come to the conclusion some time ago that it would be necessary to reorganise the labour laws and the Labour Department to some extent, because, particularly since the war, economic and general conditions had changed rapidly. Fresh industries were constantly springing up, with a consequent increase in employment in manufacturing industries. He insisted, however, that the departmental staff had been carrying out its duties in a thoroughly conscientious way. The Minister said the apprenticeship problem was a complex one. There was a widespread desire on the part of parents to get their sons into a trade without an equal desire on the part of employers to engage them as apprentices. Valuable light had been thrown on the subject by the apprenticeship conference. He added that an opportunity would be provided for the employment of a large number of young men on the land, not as apprentices, but as free workers.