PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



43 



the instructions to the Selection Officers. Thinking people 

 often deplore the fact that the incidence of the. Industrial 

 Laws is such as to require a boy who wishes to become an 

 apprentice to a trade, to leave school not later than when 

 sixteen years of age, thus ending his period of general 

 education much too soon. The results obtained from the 

 training of the returned soldiers, go to show that no harm 

 whatever would be done through entering on apprenticeship 

 at a later age than what is now the custom. As a matter 

 of fact, the evidence is all in favour of entering on actual 

 trade instruction at an older age, and that probably the 

 three years spent in learning a trade, from the age of 

 eighteen to twenty-one, would give better results than are 

 now obtained in the five years, from sixteen to twenty-one 

 years of age. If this be so, it would leave two years more 

 for the general education necessary to an appreciation of 

 the humanities, and consequently to good citizenship. 



It was very interesting and instructive to observe the 

 attitude adopted towards the vocational training of the 

 returned soldiers by the employers and employees in the 

 various callings affected. It is not too much to say that 

 all helped in every way, and that it was only by the gener- 

 ous assistance so freely given, that it was possible to 

 proceed with the undertaking. The help was, however, 

 generally given solely in a spirit of patriotism and with a 

 desire to help the men who had sacrificed so much by their 

 war service. The social and economic value of the scheme, 

 as an attempt to add 20,000 men to the skilled workers of 

 the community was not generally recognised. Certainly 

 its value as an educational experiment on quite unique 

 lines was not realised either by employers or employees. 

 On the other hand, many of the employees' organisations, 

 whilst loyally and generously giving the help needed, were 

 filled with mistrust of the scheme, arising from a fear that 

 it might lead, through swamping the market for skilled 



