GIRL'S APPRENTICESHIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 287, 4 December 1930, Page 10

GIRL'S APPRENTICESHIP.

TYPOGRAPHICAL TRADE.

NOT APPROVED BY COURT,

An application for a direction as to whether an apprenticeship contract entered into to teach a girl the typographical branch of the printing trade should be approved was made to. the Arbitration Court this morning by Mr. W. Slaughter, district registrar of apprentices.

Mr. F. A. Cleveland,'who appeared for the Typographical Union of Workers, and the Apprenticeship Committee, said that apprenticeship papers had been signed between the proprietors of the "Waiuku News" and the parents ■of a girl of 14 years for the latter to learn the printing trade, but the Act did not provide for female apprentices, although the Court could order that the apprenticeship be approved. The Master Printers' Association, the union, and the Apprenticeship Committee, were all opposed to females being, apprenticed to the typographical branch of the trade. There were plenty of boys offering.' It was necessary to protect the interests of boys, who would serve a lifetime at the trade, while girls, after reaching the twenties, would most likely get married. The Court decided not to approve of the "contract, although it had power to do so.. It said it would be Unwise to approve, in the interests of the girl herself, but it wished to make it perfectly clear that it expressed no opinion as to the suitability _or otherwise of girls for the typographical branch of the printing trade. The question was entirely one of general principles.