"THEY ARE BRAVE"

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 85, 11 April 1931, Page 6

"THEY ARE BRAVE"

UNEMPLOYED GIRLS. OVER 700 IN AUCKLAND. PITIFUL STORY RELATED. WEEK OF DESTITUTION. She slept one night on the pavilion at Victoria Park. She slept other nights in lorries parked in Stanley Street. A daily wash at the handiest water tap sufficed, a small hair comb and a powderpuff helped to complete her toilet. She bfegged food at irregular intervals. She was often hungry. This, in brief, is part of the tragic story during one week of a Southern girl's life in Auckland —unemployed, homeless, friendless, destitute. She came to the North to seek work. She is now in employment. Famished, weak and almost in a state of collapse, this girl i of 21 was picked up recently in a city lane. She had slept out because she was too proud to ask for assistance, but there is no need for any girl in Auckland +o do that, for the reason that the Y.W.C.A. and the Girls' Friendly Society will always help a girl who is up against it as badly as that. This is her story.

Down South she has a baby girl nearly three years old,' and she has to find money for the baby's maintenance. Her home was broken up and she loli her native town to nnd work in Wellington. She camc on to Auckland, and with no prospects of finding a job in an office, she started as a waitress in a city restaurant. At her work she slipped, injured herself, and was away for some time. When she went back she found that her position had been filled. Wandering Round Streets. Her plight was desperate now—no money, and there was nobody to whom she could turn. She wandered round the streets. At last her , landlady demanded the few chilling* she owed for board. The girl could not pay. She left, and lier trunk of clothes was kept as security. In the daytime the streets were very friendly with the action of people and traffic, and things were not so bad while the bright lights of the theatres twinkled in Queen Street. But when the shows were out and the streets were deserted the outlook was drab indeed. At last she was found on the verge of collapse in a byway. Friends who did not know .-he was in such a desperate position looked after her until she was strong again. Now she lias money for herself uid her baby.

Fear that many of the hundreds of out-of-work girls in Auckland might go astray unless they can earn enough' to keep themselves has actuated the National Council of Women in starting a register for unemployed girls. Seven hundred girls and women have registered in a fortnight, and only a handful have been placed. "The position is desperate for our New Zealand girls," said Miss E. Basten, who is in charge of the register. "We have the register, but we are having the utmost difficulty in placing the girls. But they are brave. They keep a stiff upper li P-'" A pile of 700 application forms for employment in a room at the Y.W.C.A. tells many a harrowing story of hardship and distress. Several girls have gone into the bureau with tattered clothes, broken-down shoes, and pallid faces, obviously famished. They have been given a good meal to help tliern on their way. On the form which the girls are asked to fill in arc the questions:— Usual employment ? Other work you could undertake? Boarding, rooming, or living at home ? How long out of work ? Number of dependents? Number of family earning monoy? Married or single? And several other inquiries. Prepared To Do Anything. Girls who have held good office positions, and who have lost their jobs through retrenchments in staffs, are so desperate that they are prepared to do anything. Tlicy say they will go to the country and work in orchards or on farms —anything to save them wandering round the streets in a fruitless search for work. Many have said they are down to their last penny. Recently one girl was caught just in time as she climbed to the- parapet of Grafton Bridge and was about to plunge to her death.

"If these women • did not stick together I don't know where they would be," said Miss Basten. " There are many terrible cases. One woman walks in from Onehunga, every day in the hope that we will have found something for her. There is one family of seven women, and not one of them can get a job. There are also many married women who have children to keep, and there are quite a number of secondary school girls. We know that there are hundreds of oftice girls who can't find work, but so far only 50 have registered. There are never any inquiries from commercial houses for girls—most of our applications are for domestics. All the work in the registry office is being done voluntarily by girls who cannot find a job."