11 March 1933: Community Encouraged To Employ Young Boys During Great Depression

11 March 1933: Community Encouraged To Employ Young Boys During Great Depression

The Australasian

11 March 1933

Mai Mitsumori-Miller

Newspaper

English

Newspaper

MELBOURNE.

ENFORCED idleness among young
people haa been one of I lie moat senium
features of tlie period of financial depres
sion, Attention is being paid to this
problem by speakers in the celebration of
the annual Boys' Week, which began in
Melbourne on Monday, A special appeal
is being made to employers in the city and
the country to provide work for boys. It
haa been remarked by Mr. G. R, Giles,
the honorary secretary of the Boys' Em
ployment Movement, which has offices at
Kurrajong House, 177 Collins street. Mel
bourne, that of .1,500 boys who left State
schools Isst Christmas only 885 went to
positions. Of the remainder 1,550 ad
vanced to higher education, and nearly 400
returned to school. That left more than
600 who were ueither at school nor a«
work.
Several speakers lately have expressed
the opinion that the law should be altered
so that boys could be paid in accordance
with their experience instead of according
to age. Mr. Linton, M.L.A., in an ad
dress, advised parents to demand 6ucli an
alteration, lie said that the youth aged
between 17 and 10 years without practical
experience was of no greater value from an
employment point of view than a boy of
14 years who had juBt left school.
TECHNICAI< EDUCATION.
The investigations of the Education In
quiry Board showed that there were
various directions in which economics were
called for in the educational system of the
State. Some changes have been made,
though other proposals, were set aside last
year because of opposition in Parliament
and elsewhere. The Minister for Educa
tion (Mr. Pennington) indicated, in reply
ing to, a deputation on March 3, that he
was dissatisfied with the present system
of technical education, and that in the near
futyre it would be revised. A possibility
suggested by one of his questions is that
of the State taking over the whole of the
system of technical education.
Mr. Pennington said that there were 14
technical schools which were under the con
trol of the Education department, and 14
which were not. "They are not working
smoothly," he said, "and there is duplicat
ing and overlapping. We have no control
over the outside schools, except by the
grant. As well as this, there is too much
competition between the principals of the
schools to get pupils by specialising in sec
tions which could be more economical. I
also feel that you have arrived at the time
when you will have to ask more fees.
Personally Rpcaking, I think we are giving
too much for nothing." He pointed out
that, while some schools charged £8 for a
course in a subject, others charged £1 for
the course.
VALUING FOR LAND TAX.
Opinions on land tax have been expressed
at recent sittings in Melbourne of the
Royal Commission on Taxation. Several
witnesses have advocated abolition of the
tax, but the commission has invited sug
gestipns in other directions than that. A
witness on March 3 was the State commis
sioner of taxes (Mr. R. W. Chenoweth).
Referring to suggestions that "wide dis
crepancies" existed between Federal and
State valuations, he said that they were
only occasional. Where the two depart
ments had valued properties at or about
the same time, or under similar conditions,
it would be generally found that the two
values approximated reasonably closely.
In recent years, Mr. Chenoweth added,
closer co-ordination had been maintained
between the departments than formerly.
In the State office instances of wide dis
parity coming under notice were investi
gated, and, if necessary, adjusted. Answer
ing the question whether it was practicable
to devise machinery to arrive at a uniform
basis for Federal and State land tax, he
said that no two valuers, even under the
same conditions, could ever be guaranteed
to return the same valuation. Absolute
uniformity rouUl be achieved bf one valua
tion authority only, wWcb rouat be by the
one officer working to the Mine defini
tion«.
"It cannot 1» sufficiently emphasised,
Mr. Chcnoweth aaid, "that valuing ia not
an exact science, owing to the different
weight attached by retch individual to the!
same facta. It is always, within margins,
a matter of opinion." j
ItAtt<WAYS DISMISSALS, j
Power of the Railways Commissioners:
to dismiss men summarily without giving
any reason w as defended by the Minister j
for Railways (Mr. Menzies) on March 3.
He was replying to a deputation from the
Trades Hall Council. Members of Die
deputation indicated that they were con
cerned particularly in the dismissal of h.
A. Mullins, a porter who went to Russia
as a union delegate, and who, tome time
after hia return, was summarily dis
missed.
Under the Railways Act, Mr. Menzies
pointed out, employees of the department
held office at the pleasure of the depart
ment. and even without the section specific
ally giving the commissioners power to dis
miss men summarily, men could be dis
missed at will. It would be undesirable
to make the conditions of employment
more rigid, as in a poor season the railways
might have to decrease the (lumber of its
employees. The power to dismiss men
summarily could become tyrannical, and
the choice appeared to lie between what
might become dangerous tyranny or what
would be dangerous rigidity. Adminis
trators must be trusted to use their power
with honesty.
PIECEWORK.
Periodically requests have been made toj
the Railways Commissioners for the aboli
tion of bonus work, piecework, and butty- ]
gang systems, and repeatedly the commis
sioners have pointed out that railway
unions are mistaken in the faults they as
cribe to the systems. The latest reply is
to representations by the Iron Trades Coun
cil. In a letter to its secretary (Mr. R.
O'Halloran), the chairman of commission
ers (Mr. H. W. Clapp), said that although
the bonus system was temporarily inopera
tive the commissioners were satisfied that
there was no foundation for the criticism
offered of it. The contention that the butty
gang system was not economical was not
borne out by facts, and despite assertions
to the contrary Jong experience had shown
that the system was financially advantage
ous both to the department and to the em
ployees concerned.
Mr. Clapp added that the statement that
quality was sacrified for quantity in piece
work was not correct, nor was the state
ment that immense damage was being
caused to plant under the system. It was
untrue that employees were coerced into
the acceptance of piecework conditions.
CENTENARY,
In approaching centennial times there is
likely to be difference of view on the pro
nunciation of "centenary" The word is
beard already in three versions. The cen
tenary of Melbourne will be celebrated
in 1934-35, and churches and other insti
tutions which were represented in the early
days of the young colony are also thinking
about their hundredth year. The Victoria
Tasmania Methodist Conference has been
sitting in Melbourne since last week, and
on March 3 proposals to celebrate the
v of the Methodist Church in Vic
centenary
toria were introduced. It was suggested that
before discussion proceeded a ruling should
be obtained on the pronunciation of "cen
tenary."' The President (the Rev. H. W.
Frederick) referred the question to the
Rev. Dr. C. W. Atkinson, who stated that
the older dictionaries preferred the pronun
ciation "cent-enary," while some of the
newer dictionaries, including the Oxfcrd,
preferred "ceu-te-nary." The pronuncia
tion "eenten-ary" had been condemned as
"barbarous." As a" conservative scholar,
he preferred "cent-enary," while the Ox
ford pronunciation was preferred by the
younger generation.
"I was the unsuspecting cause of all
this discussion, to which I have listened
with interest," remarked the Rev. C. C.
Dugan; "but so far as 1 am concerned
we are still discussing 'con-ternary* celebra
tions." There was laughter, followed by
Mr. Frederick's suggestion that the differ
ence of opinion might be interpreted as in
dividual freedom.