WOMEN IN BUSINESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 122, 25 May 1932, Page 6

WOMEN IN BUSINESS.

WHAT OF THE LAND? (To tie Editor.) I have read with keen interest the letters on the employment of girls, bit I notice that none of these business men mention shops. Yet why not? They rightly make the point that the boy who does not grow up through all branches of his business is not likely to become a successful head of a department. The old style of training has a great deal to say for it, but way not make it applicable to each sex and let the best brain win? What are the New Zealand men afraid ofl that women are barred from any higher post, as they are not either in England and America? But there is another side of this question that none of these writers has touched upon. They all speak as if business were the mainspring of the Dominion. Is it not a fact that New Zealand will always have to live on what is produced on the land? Why not teaoh the young men to develop that spirit of adventure which made their fathers pioneers? The population of this country is increasing, prices are falling, and may remain down, and we rely on our wool and our meat and butter. Large competitors are entering our markets; one alone, France, whose African colonies are being so well managed that within the nest ten years they hope to bo self-contained as regards wool, will make a big gap in our income from fine combings. This is only one case, and there are others. Yet we talk as if the life of the country depends on business. It depends on o-etting the young men out of' the towns into the country and making it worth their while to remain there.. Then there will not be so many young women, who are forced into offices to take the load from their fathers' hacks, for they will marry the young men on the land, but not if the present slavery to pay heavy overhead expenses on land goes on. This will force the young people from the land to the towns, and the result of that is very evident with us to-day. Every family which remains in the country helps New Zealand to pay its debts, but will the young people remain there when they see the town men spending so much easier and more enjoyable lives? I doubt it. This, I think, is the problem at the present time, which should be talked about by chambers of commerce, not the efforts of the girls to make a living for themselves in the only way open to them. WOMAN WORKER.