GIRLS' SPHERE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 116, 18 May 1932, Page 9

GIRLS' SPHERE.

OFFICE OR HOME? BOYS FOR TYPING WORK; BUSINESS MEN IN FAVOUR. NEW EMPLOYMENT OPENINGS../* (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day.

A suggestion that boys should replace girls as shorthand writers and typists was made to-day at the meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce Council by Mr. W. E. Cuthbertson, who said that the commercial community was responsible for the extent.of unemployment among boys in New Zealand at the present' time.

"I have felt for a long time that we, as commercial men, are responsible for the position as it exists to-day," said Mr. Cuthberieon. ; "I am strongly of the opinion that, in warehouses, ofiieee and shops, far too much female labour is employed in New Zealand. Girls have a sphere in life that is rightly theirs, but they should not displace boys who can do the work as well. It has been said that boys'are unsatisfactory in certain classes of office work, but they must be looked to for the future. The men of to-day have carried on their businesses in the past and we cannot send all the boys away to be fanners. Many of them can become efficient at shorthand and typeAvriting. Let the girls stay at home j and be the That is where they ought to be. The boys are not getting the encouragement clue to those who, in the future, will have to carry on the business of the country. . Mr. E. R. Render: Give me a girl for shorthand and typewriting. Mr. Cuthbertson: The boys can beat them into a cocked hat. The chairman, Mr., J. Pearce Luke, said he had some personal experience during the war of the propaganda about, the efficiency of women. In his opinion they "hadn't got it." The committee's report stated that, in a, national scheme to meet the unemployment problem which the Government had in hand, full attention, it was assumed, would be given to some co-ordination on national lines. That would absorb both adults and young people into useful industry and reproductive employment.-