Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 1939. THE WASTE OF YOUTH.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 1939. THE WASTE OF YOUTH.

U'UIjL approval must he given to the expressed determination

of the Minister of Labour (Mr Webb) to have the apprenticeship laws of the Dominion amended and brought up to dale and eventually to call al] interested parties together “with the

idea, of going fully into the question of apprenticeship laws in the hope that we may evolve a. more practical way of creating greater facilities for our young people to learn various trades.” This country has laboured for many years under the reproach of allowing too many of its oncoming youth, to drift into unskilled occupations, and of importing tradesmen to fill some, at least, of the places young New Zealanders should have occupied. The time certainly is more than ripe for going exhaustively into the question of opening a better future for young people leaving school, with benefit Io themselves and their country.

It should be recognised that the question raised concerns industrial organisation from the broadest standpoint. If the question of apprenticeship is to be dealt with effectively, much more than tinkering adjustments must be undertaken. 11 is by no means enough to consider plans by which existing industries will be enabled to absorb a. larger annual quota, of apprentices. What is needed is an organisation and extension of productive enterprise under which the whole available manhood of the country, as well as a portion of its womanhood, will be advantageously employed in industry.

The root question is that of an effective and satisfactory balance between primary and secondary industries. More or less detached and disjointed enterprise is to be distrusted. For example, a project in itself of good promise is at present afoot for clearing and improving land by the use of modern machinery. There was a time when enterprise on these lines might have been counted upon confidently to stimulate the general progress of the Dominion and the welfare of its people. Taking account particularly of the restrictions that are being placed on our external markets, equally good results from an extension of the area of improved and usable land are by no means to be taken for granted today. Account has to be taken always of a marketing outlet as well as of the means of enlarging output in this or that branch of industry.

in working out a. practical policy, attention must be concentrated initially upon the establishment, of a balanced economy in which all available labour will be employed Ip the best advantage. As Mr Webb has said, a more balanced form of production is one of the essentials of larger production and orderly economic progress. This implies industrial planning, as well as the training of workers. The true basis of the policy that is needed is to be found in considering what may be done to increase the flow of goods and services available to satisfy essential needs from year to year by maintaining and improving living standards and in other ways.

For the sake of the employment and welfare of the. oncoming generation and on other grounds, there is great ifeed in this country of a methodical study of the relative concentration of labour on, amongst, other things, public works, including some classes of local body work, and the production of consumers’ goods. It is the more necessary that this study should he instituted since New Zealand, like most other countries, is likely in the immediate future to find it. necessary and advisable to allot an increased share of its resources to defence preparations of one kind and another.

Apart from claims of that kind, industrial enterprise which, looks to the satisfaction of the immediate needs of the people, individually, in their homes and in other ways, not only has certain claims to priority from the standpoint of social welfare, but otters a better assurance of stable and advantageous employment, than a proportion at least, of the development work on which our national resources are being lavished so freely at present.

There are considerable difficulties to be overcome in approaching a more effective organisation of industry in this country, bid. the fact that, we are-so far at present from making a fully advantageous use of our human and material resources in itself means that a wide field is open in which progress and advancement are possible. It is plainly for the good of New Zealand that its people should be employed more effectively than many of them are today and in particular that belter opportunities should be opened for that considerable proportion of our youth which now finds its way into unskilled or other blind-alley occupations. There is no simple solution of the problems involved. A solution is to be found only in unremitting and purposeful efforts to enlarge and extend our industries until advantageous and worth-while employment is available for all who need it. ffntil that pitch of development, is reached, wo .shall continue to waste, not only opportunities, but lives, and worst of all young lives.