CONSCRIPTION FOR GIRLS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18101, 17 June 1924, Page 6

CONSCRIPTION FOR GIRLS.

LOCAL OPINIONS.

The suggestion of Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M., Auckland, that girls should be conscripted for the purpose of undergoing training to meet a contingency which, as in the case of boys, might never arise, but to be trained to carry out the responsibilities which in the ease of 99 per cent, of the girls they would subsequently have to face, was approved yesterday by two ladies who have had a good experience of social work among girls. "I am quite in favour of girls haying to undergo a course in :ntant welfare." said Mrs Eva Roberts, president or the (Social Hygiene Society, "but, of course, it should be ?een that they are not called on to put in more time at such work than tovs put in at present in military trairing." "With regard to cooKiuj, Mr.i Roberts said that this was at pie. i ent taught in the primary schools to girls in Standards 5 and 6, in consequence of which, if the teaching was satisfactory, she did not see any necessity for continuing the subject, as in » hut time tho pupils should have acquired a knowledge of cooking. Infant welfare and home nursing should, however, be taught on the lines suggested. She understood that in secondary schools cooking was taught,, although, where girls were taking a commercial course, the training in cooking was in . some instances reduced. With respect to intant welfare, she understood that the pupils of the Girls' High School, alter reaching a certain age, were taken on a visit to the Karitane Baby Hospital, where "they were given instruction in infant welfare. She was favour of girls being compelled to ta«e a post-school course in* infant welfare and home nursing up to tho age of sixteen. Such a scheme would, she considered, not inflict any great hardship when it was remembered that boys had to undergo military training up to the age of twenty-one years. She w as in favour of the subjects mentioned being made compulsory in girls' secondary schools. • "It seems a workable scheme," said a lady who has had considerable ex. penence in Y.W.C.A. work, "provided l »' g T V e °P le are fo und to carry it ? ut ; . " wfl s only fair, she continue-*, that since the young men were trained to defend their country, the girls should also lie trained hi the dc'fcn-0 °| """Oif homes. There was n-> doubt that there was a need for many to learn how to run a home on the proper lines. At present too Jiany yirls preferred to learn clerical and other work rather than face the prospect of earning their livelihoods at domestic service, but if the teaching ol the subjects connected with -the management of a home were made compulsory, the effect, she thought, would lie to raise the tone of domestic service and emi3e numbers to take it up who now were inclined to look down on it. "But," she added, "there must be no class distinction in the scheme. Girls of all grades must be compelled to undertake the course laid down, just as all youths are now compelled to undergo military training; there would, of course, need to be certain exemptions given in the case of ill-health or for some other sound reason, and in this connexion the territorial system could serve as a model." Proceeding, the lady said that she thought all girls from fifteen to eighteen years of age should be /brought under such , a scheme which should include such subjects as cooking, laundry work, and other branches of domestic science, including infant welfare, the lastnamed subject being taught to the eldest girls. The training should, she thought, be given in the evening,- and after the girls had left the primary schools, although she did not think it necessary to interfere with the train, ing in domestic science already being given in schools.