H.—lB

99. Since the first ex-servicemen were admitted to the training centres in 1940 (then administered by the Labour Department) some 48 returned and 41 men from the home Forces have satisfactorily completed carpentry courses, and all of this number, except some few who could be regarded as irreducible wastage from the scheme, are reckoned in terms of their agreement to be still working at their trade. As at 31st March of this year 248 returned and 118 men from the home Forces were receiving tuition in carpentry centres or in the field. Similarly, 159 general engineering and welding ex-servicemen tradesmen and 36 boot and shoe ex-servicemen operatives have been trained and placed at their trade since 1940, while as at 31st March, 1944, the numbers of such trainees undergoing training were— general engineering and welding, 45 ; boot and shoo manufacturing, 18. 100. Table IX of Appendix II gives particulars of all " A " Class training applicants, trainees, and graduates into industry as at 31st March, 1944. (iii) " B " Class Training 101. Except in minor details it has not been found necessary to modify the "B " Class trade training procedure explained in the Board's last year's report. The only noteworthy development has been the relaxation of the original rule that " B " Class training would not be approved if " A " Class training facilities in the trade concerned were anywhere available. The training of married ex-servicemen who have served overseas or who have served for at least twelve months in New Zealand, with approved employers in their own localities is now permitted in consideration of the difficulty and inconvenience arising from the trainee's having to be away from home while undergoing training at the "A " Class Training Centre. Single men are, however, still expected to proceed to the " A " Class Training Centre where one exists for the trade concerned. 102. The local Trade Training Advisory Committees previously referred to are yielding valuable assistance to the Board and its officers in the pre-selection consideration of " B " Class trainees ; in the supervision of " B " Class contracts, and in the encouragement of ex-servicemen during their training period. These Committees are composed of representatives of the employers' and workers' organizations in the trade concerned, plus the District Rehabilitation Officer, and, as might be expected, the technical knowledge which such a Committee possesses, and the standing which it has with employers and workers, qualify it to exercise an important function in regard to rehabilitation trade training. 103. Since March, 1943, when " B " Class training was being provided in only a very few trades there has been a marked and gratifying extension of this form of training, both in the number of trades and skilled occupations concerned and in the number of traineeships approved in. these trades and occupations. At the present time "B " Class traineeships are current in no fewer than sixty-five trades and occupations, and this number of denominations affected leaves no doubt as to the wide scope which " B " Class training can be expected to cover as general demobilization is followed by training and placement in a large number of the skilled avocations. To attempt, to provide for " A " Class training in all of these callings —i.e., to attempt to establish specialized training centres for each of such callings would be manifestly undesirable. 104. While " A " Class training facilities have so far been provided only in those trades suitable for male workers this is not so where "B " Class training is involved. Here the policy is to provide training facilities in approved trades and occupations for ex-servicewomen as well as men. Although the number of " B " Class training engagements involving women is so far small it is anticipated that a number of the several thousand women at present serving with the Forces will wish to avail themselves of this form of assistance. 105. Table X of Appendix II gives details of "B" Class training applicants, trainees, and graduates into industry as at 31st March, 1944. (iv) " C " Class Training 106. The remaining separate form of training assisted by the Board is "C " Class training. As already remarked, this class of training, which is similar in method to " B " Class training, is confined to ex-servicemen resuming contracts of apprenticeship interrupted by war service. The number of apprentices who were old enough to be recruited to the Forces has been considerable, and correspondingly extensive provision will need to be made for ex-servicemen apprentices. 107. Before the promulgation of the Suspension of Apprenticeship Order Emergency Regulations in February of this year the responsibilities of previous masters to ex-servicemen apprentices wishing to resume interrupted contracts were defined in the 1.939 Suspension of Apprenticeship Orders Emergency Regulations and the amendments thereto gazetted in the subsequent war years. These regulations and their amendments obliged the previous master to re-engage the apprentice for a period to be determined in terms of the regulations, by the Labour Department's District Registrar of Apprentices, but the increased financial responsibility of the employer arising out of the Board's desire to ensure that all ex-servicemen trainees receive a reasonable living wage was not satisfactorily defined. Adherence to the terms of the original apprenticeship order would have limited the ex-serviceman to a juvenile's wage scale, and to clarify this aspect, as well as the general conditions surrounding the resumption of interrupted apprenticeships, the consolidated 1944 regulations were gazetted. 108. The consolidated Suspension of Apprenticeship Order Regulations envisage two sub-classes of " C " Class trainees —viz., those who are twenty-one years of age or more at the time of resuming their contract, and those who at such time have not attained adulthood. With both, sub-classes, if the apprentice at any time within six months of his release from the Forces seeks the resumption of his apprenticeship it is revived either for the term unexpired at the date of suspension or for three years, whichever is the shorter period. If the apprentice is twenty-one; or over or if the original contract would have expired had it not been suspended he is to receive full journeyman's wages during the remainder of his training—i.e., because of the policy of the Board to assume subsidy responsibility as mentioned later although such responsibility is not specifically laid upon the Board by the regulations in question. Of this amount the master is required to pay to the apprentice the weekly wage prescribed by the original apprenticeship order for the last six months of the contract plus onethird of the difference between this sum and the journeyman's weekly award wage. The remaining

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