CORRESPONDENCE.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16584, 25 July 1919, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE.

MEETING AT THE OPERA HOUSE, to the kditor or "the frbss." Sir, —I am in agreement with Miss Saunders in her letter appearing in your issue of the 23rd. I have looked in vain for some report of tho crowded meeting addressed by H. Holland, M.P., at the Opera House, on Sunday. Surely when a member of Parliament addresses a large audience in a public hall, it is usual for a reportor to be present.—Yours, etc., DAYLIGHT. July 24th. [It has long been our practice to spare our reporting staff on Sundays as far as possible. Unless tho e'reum-stanc-cs aro altogether exceptional, a politician who chooses to deliver a political address on a Sunday must make his own arrangements for a renort of his meeting.—Ed. "The Press."] HOSPITAL"NTURSFS. TO TUr! rniHH! OF 'TtlE PRESS." Sir, —Could you kindly inform me if it is a fact that fourth-year Sisters on the Christchureh Hospital staff are not receiving tho increase in their salaries recently granted by the Hospital Board? T understand that the amount should he £150 but that payment at the rate of only £130 per annum is being made. If I am correctly informed, then is not this a breach of faith with both Sisters and tho public?— Yours, etc., j WELL-WISHER. [The Hospital authorities state that, j owing to a misunderstanding, tho ■ increased salary was not paid, but| the matter has been adjusted, and pavment is now b°' n K made as from April Ist.—Ed. "The Press."! CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS. TO THE EDITOR OF "THE I'RESS." Sir, —"Ann Saunders," in a letter regarding the above, states she spent last Sunday evening listening to an address | by that patriot Mr Holland, M.P., and that her eyes fillod with tears as sho heard the description of the sufferings of the C.O.'s. I wonder if this lady r s eyes filled with tears as she read tho accounts of the treatment accorded to the poor Belgian and French women and children. But for the heroic bravery and self-sacrifice of the common soldier 3 as sho designates, them, her own foliow--1 countrywomen, inc'ud'ng Mcsdames Wells and Page, would have undergone tho samo brutal and murderous treatment at the hands of the barbarian Huns, —Yours, etc., NUFF SED. July 23rd. THE EMPLOYMENT OF SOLDIERS. TO THE EDITOR OF 'TUB TItESS." Sir, —I see by this morning's .papers that tho Repatriation Board have been attacking tho Bank of New Zealand regarding tho employment 'of female clocks. By the way, how many girls aro employed in Mr Hewlett's (Canter- j bury Seed Co.) office? I need not ask how many in Mr Jamieson's (New Zealand Farmers' Co-op.) for ho could only answor "Legion." I would like to ask the Board of how many men do they know who were employed in banks prior to the war who have looked in vain for their jobs? Also how is it that these 140 men (if physically fit), are not working at their pre-war jobs? If their previous employers will not take them back, why not attack them, instead of tho bank, who keeps open all its men's positions? I would liko to point out to the Board that a bank clerk has to start at tho bottom, otherwise Jio is lost at his work, for it takes a long while indeed to pick up tho routine of bank work, if you start a few rungs up the ladder. Bank work differs in nearly every way from other office work, and I don t think that these returned men would take very kindly to "stamps," "details," or "exchanges," at £G0 a year. —Yours, 6t °" A>v OLD EASBEEN. July 24th. fMr A. W. Jamieson, acting-manager of tho New Zealand Farmers' Co-op., when a cofcy of the above was submitted to him by a representative of "Tho Press, said: attacks by anonymous i corrcspondonts are absolutely distastoful .to rae, and I. cannot see any good : purpose in making a reply. Tho p® at issue is under consideration, and I havo no doubt that a satisfactory explanation will be forthcoming. In fact, I am meeting the local manager B N.Z. and directors ,on Monday. Mr C. H. Hewlett, manager of tho ; Canterbury Seed Company, said: "We vhave no girls m our employ but typists and one telephone attendant. Wo have no girl clerks now; we had them, but all have left and boen replaced by returned men."]

LADY BANK CLERKS. TO TTTE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir, —Tho local Repatriation. Committee—whose efforts at repatriation have not been attended with that success which ore is entitled to expect from so many gentlemen of supposed proved business capacity —are seeking to cover up their ignominious failure by suggesting that the only stumbling-block to their success is the continued employment of tydy clerks by the Bank of New Zealand. . . _ _ .Now, Sir, what is the position? • lor years social conditions have tended towards bringing women more, into competition with men in the struggle for existence. This process, starting with the granting of female franchise, has ibcen going on until we have the flair sex—if not in New Zealand, at lease in. England and in other countries—competing successfully with men in such learned professions as medicine and tho law. In England tho exigencies of war demanded in the majority of industries that female labour should be utilised, and here again wo find them coming into their own, and acquitting themselves well as munition workers, as agricultural lahr-urers, and in other spheres of lifo. In New Z.-aland. in a lesser degr e, similar conditions of society were in evidence before the war, and these received further advancement by the depletion of the man-power of the country, and by the consequent measures adopted to meet the difficulties. As is well known, certain expedients were resorted to to me~tthe altered cor.di.ions and in most cases these more than satisfactorily met tho demands which .arose. One of these was the employment of lady clerks by banks. It is certain that in time banking institutions would have had to meet the increasing and wellfounded rohictance of young men to enter their service bv employing women, but the war remrTred a conservative p'oiudice, and we new find that women nave eomo to stay, as far as certain work in the bnnks is concerned. The ladies employed by tho bank were, and are. chiefly employed on su"h work as typing, working adding machines, writ-ing-up pass books, and in eomo cases doing ledger -work. With regard to | typing, this is _ essentially women's | work. The writing-up of pass books is a position which most juniors have graduated to after eighteen months' service; they are then receiving about seventy pminds ne~ annum. Th's is the ' work. Sir. that lady clerics arc doing at a slightly larger salary, and for the Repatriation Committee t"> suggest that these girls—who have perforce to earn a living—should lo.°ve their jobs to give a returned soldier such a position is mere nonsense, and if it represents the co'leet'ive w'sdom of th % R-epat— at 01 Committee, then wo have no need to ' look further for the reason of their failure to find a solution of the problems of rcnatrip.tion. I thirk I have sa'd enough to thc?e well-meaning thnt they . have net studied this question with a l due sense of proportion. . Final'.v Sir I would like to point out, on behalf of the lady clerks under discussion, more especially as tha heads

of local banking institutions seem loth to defend the falso position their clerks have been put into, that tho Bank of New Zealand guaranteed to take back all their male clerks. This guarantee has been fulfilled in every case, so that if the directors, after discharging their obligations to their soldier clerks, niuKO the employment of women part of tho bank's policy, it is their business, and it seems the height of impertinence for amateur financiers to give gratuitous advice to tho directors of tho bank, and at the same time make it possible for the finger of scorn to be pointed at women who they wrongly say are standing in the light of returned soldiers.— Yours, etc., D.R. PROFESSOR VOX ZEDLITZ. TO THk EDITOR OK "THK PKJtS»." Sir, —Surelv there is no truth in the report that Professor von Zedlitz is going to hold a position at Victoria Co.lege? I hope the returned foldieis and the rest of us will show him, and the Board who mnke the appointment, that tho treatment of our 111011 in Germany is not forgotten.—Yours, etc., I STUDENT.