SHORTAGE OF TRADESMEN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1938, Page 4

SHORTAGE OF TRADESMEN.

APAPiT from its detail merits, the dispute which has led to a strike involving more than sixteen hundred men at the Otahuhu Railway Workshops sets further emphasis on the fact that there is a more, or less serious shortage in this country of some classes of skilled tradesmen. At the broadest view this state of affairs demands vigorous remedial treatment. It implies plainly that a number of New Zealanders are being excluded needlessly from desirable opportunities of advancement and also that the industrial development of the country is being retarded. With a Government in office pledged to study human welfare and values above all things, there should be no hesitation about attacking resolutely the problem of increasing to a permissible maximum the proportion of skilled workers in the Dominion. The ultimate remedy is to give a full industrial training to as many lads as can be employed in skilled trades to their own advantage and that of the’ community. At shorter range, something may be accomplished by extending and enlarging upon what is already being done to provide for the intensive training of youths and young men who have passed the ordinary a«'e of apprenticeship. The ruling aim undoubtedly should be to open up avenues of skilled employment to the largest possible proportion of the workers of the Dominion. In furtherance of that aim, this country might very profitably import selected bodies of skilled workers and technicians to establish new industries and so develop a broader scope of productive and profitable employ ment.foi its own oncoming youth.