WOMEN BUS CONDUCTORS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 169, 18 July 1924, Page 8

WOMEN BUS CONDUCTORS.

I (To ttie Editor.) g; r .—ln view of the extraordinary [ decision of the Auckland City Council . to refuse a license to a qualified bus , conductor, on the sole ground that she is a woman, it is worth pointing out that the Melbourne City Fathers have emerged from such state of bone-headed , Conservatism. In the Victorian capital , there is a large line of motor omnibuses \ now running, called the '"'Kintrak," which employs, regularly, over twenty I girls as conductors. The wages of theso girls are from £3 15/ to £5 a week. , and they are clad in neat uniforms of trousers, leggings, coat, etc. There is no outcry from prudes or Puritans against young womeu accepting such work. The girls, as shown in photogravure illustrations, seem models of "grace and dignity." Mr. Fred Knight, general manager of the company, with a. World-wide experience of bus conducting, considers women in some respects better fitted for the job than men. He adds: "The girls like it, the piwKc like it, and the management is satisfied. What more is thete to say about it?' , A great deal moTe, if he were in a model city, where the councillors pose as "censores moruin" and the Mayor as "arbiter elegantianun." The company, it is said, has a waiting list of about a hundred girls applying , for positions. ""The girls employed are mostly from overseas, but many Australian girls are coming forward. A group of the conductors were asked: "How do you like your job, girls?" "Sure, I'd shoot the fellah that tried to take mine away," was the ready reply of a girl from Dublin. The girl conductors have all agreed to bank everything they earn over £3 a week, and they produce their bankbooks to the manager to show how they arc accumulating their "piles"—some have as much as £40 to their credit. Is it not time our local wiseacres reversed their decision? Or must they invite a Supreme Court judgment on the matter? I am, etc., J. LTDDELL KELLY.