WANTED FIFTY-FOUR THOUSAND WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 146, 20 June 1906, Page 4

WANTED FIFTY-FOUR THOUSAND WOMEN.

A good deal of astonishment will be caused by the scaiement contained in our cable news to-day that Mr. Napier Informed a conference upon the question of the openings afforded by the colonies for educated and trained women, that H54.000 were needed in- New Zealand. Some curiosity may be excited regarding Mr. Napier's mode of computation, but his figures represent approximately the numerical difference between the sexes In this colony. That remunerative employment could be found in New Zealand

\ , . .■':'....-■-'. ■ ■ ~ * -- ■ —- for any large body of women in other walke of life than,domestic service i» open to question, and tlioso who eucouraga educated women to com* here la search of a liviag incur a very grave responsibility. Moat certainly every clerical branch of employment i> greatly overstocked, and there is no dearth of labour for the requirements of our factories. It will, of course, be pointed out that this conference only considered the colonies as affording openings for educated and trained women fitted to undertake the lighter kinds of agricultural work, fruit preserving and bottling, poultry-keeping, bee-keeping, and dairying, or as experts in domestic work. But the expectation that educated women brought up under English conditions would be able to support themselves in rural industries here Tβ not justified. Fruit-growing, when followed by men with families, is one of the most precarious of occupations. Many good settlers have abandoned it after expending years of toil in laying out orchards, because of the prevalence of pests and the uncertainty of markets. And although a good deal has been said about the prospective profits from poultry rearing, all these calculations rest upon a supposed demand in England —which can be more easily supplied by women directing attention to such industries on the spot than by spending their small capital upon passage money to New Zealand and in breaking up virgin land. We believe that it is a cruel thing to tempt single women to these colonies in the expectation that they can make a living easily on the land. Sad disappointment and much suffering will, we fear, be the lot of the great majority of those who make the venture. Landing friendless and entirely ignorant of the conditions of colonial life, women so placed would be utterly at a loss what to do. We sincerely hope that Lady Aberdeen and others who are co-operating with her in this movement will take care to secure some definite arrangement with colonial Governments for receiving such immigrants and providing suitable locations for them before they proceed any further with their scheme.