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Of the 2,339 male placements referred to in the period under review 38 related to placements of married farm workers who have proceeded to farm-engagements where only single men's quarters have been available and who in consideration of this have been paid the special accommodation allowance of £1 per week introduced by the Government in 1940 to assist in overcoming the shortage of farm labour. During the period reviewed 37 single and 13 married men have also been placed under the Government's Farm Training Subsidy Scheme No. 4f. WOMEN'S LAND CORPS. In association with the Women's War Service Auxiliary, the Placement Service has, since the launching of the Women's Land Corps towards the close of 1941, assisted in the interviewing of applicants and the referral of selected candidates to farm-engagements under the scheme, which provides for the payment of a subsidy on the basis of 15s. per week during a period of six months' training as farm workers. At the 31st March of the current year 104 women or girls had been placed on farms under the Land Corps while 15 further placements were at that date in the course of being arranged. Thirty-one vacancies for Land Corps members were current with the Service on the 31st March. The extent to which farmers on the one hand have availed themselves of the labour available through this measure and women on the other have undertaken to perform farm duties has been somewhat disappointing, particularly is this so in consideration of the publicity which has been given to the almost complete absence of male labour. It is hoped that this measure will be further developed as a means of assisting the farming community to maintain the level of production. SEASONAL FARM WORK. The shortage of seasonal farm workers of various kinds during 1941-42 season gave every indicati on of being too considerable to be filled by the ordinary means at the disposal of the Service. Accordingly three measures of a special character were put into operation with what has transpired to be gratifying success. The measures in question were (a) the opening of a special seasonal Placement Office at Motueka to handle the labour requirements of the tobacco-growing industry, and to a lesser degree the hops, smallfruit, and pip-fruit growing industries ; (b) the prosecution of a school-boy and University student vacational farm placement scheme on even more comprehensive lines than a similar scheme operated in the long vacation of 1940-41, resulting in 630 placements ; and (c) the evolution of special machinery for the temporary withdrawal from military camps of experienced seasonal farm workers prepared to volunteer to assist in cropping, harvesting, and sowing work. THE PLACEMENT SERVICE AND THE WAR. The Service has continued to work in close liaison with Man-power Committees and Armed Forces Appeal Boards in dealing with, the recruiting of workers from industry into the armed forces, and to a lesser extent in the withdrawal from the armed forces of key workers to fill vacancies in industry. Apart from these duties the Service has undertaken a number of special assignments in the direction of locating skilled and other labour urgently needed for works of vital national importance. In all such instances the Service has been remarkably successful, such, for example, as in the referral of building tradesmen and labourers to defence undertakings, bomb-splinter proofing of oil-fuel depots, minesweeper construction, and munitions works. GOVERNMENT YOUTH CENTRES. Government Youth Centres instituted in 1938 for the provisions of vocational guidance and placement facilities to juveniles have continued to operate in Auckland, Napier, Wellington, and Christchurch, while the Dunedin Vocational Guidance Association, an organization of similar character but outside departmental control, has, as in past years, co-operated with the Youth Centre system in dealing with juveniles. The shortage of adults in the labour market has emphasized the demand for the services of youth labour, but the supply of this labour has been quite unequal to the calls made upon it, notwithstanding that youths have been leaving school for employment in such numbers as to occasion considerable concern regarding the possibility of a post-war unskilled labour problem among youths. During the twelve months ended 31st March, 194-2, a total of 2,649 boys and 2,813 girls enrolled with the Youth Centres or the Dunedin Vocational Guidance Association for placement, and 2,008 boys and 2,077 girls were placed in employment. The following table gives particulars of enrolments, placements, and vacancies in respect of boys up to eighteen years of age and girls up to the age of twenty-one recorded by the Centres and the Dunedin Office during the twelve months ended 31st March, 1942. Boys over the age of eighteen and girls over the age of twenty-one become the care of the adult Placement Service

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Enrolments. Placements. Vacancies. Centre. 1 Boys. Girls. Boys. Girls. Boys. Girls. Auckland .. .. 436 419 432 327 2,956 457 Napier .. .. 30 32 22 11 50 16 Wellington ... .. 468 451 396 224 1,316 1,042 Christchurch .. .. 1,365 .1,391 926 1,156 1,327 1,348 Dunedin .. .. 350 520 232 359 416 301 2,649 2,813 2,008 2,077 6,065 3,159