WAR WORK FOR WOMEN

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23080, 24 July 1940, Page 14

WAR WORK FOR WOMEN

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —From time to time there have been letters in your columns about farm work for women. I wish to contribute another suggestion. There are many young women and girls whose jobs have ceased owing to the present condition of the world, and who are only too anxious to take up occupations that will be of us a to New Zealand’s war effort. It is a pity a laudwork training school for women could not be started straight away in readiness for the busy season. Is there no firm or private owner with a place to offer? One hears of farms “going back” or “being abandoned” owing to the shortage of farm labour, etc. Could not one of these places be used as a training school, where the women (as in England) would be kept and receive pocket money for their efforts till they are efficient enough to work on farms at a reasonable rate of pay? I realise that this scheme would require a gocid financial background, and suggest that if the Government could not undertake this expense alone, some patrioticminded persons or firms might assist. With already some experience of country work, a friend and I (both university graduates) are anxious to take up such work straight away,, at a fitting wage, so as to have the necessary physical strength by the time tiie busy season arrives. Personally. I should think that women employed in pairs would be the most satisfactory way whenever possible. Are there any Cantcrburr farmers willing to offer - such July 22, 1940.