Glamour At Industries

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32077, 27 August 1969, Page 2

Glamour At Industries

Glamour has a place in industry—and a useful place, too, as could be seen at the New Zealand Industries Fair in Christchurch yesterday. Not only were women acting as receptionists, handing cut infornuftiom pamphlets, and quoting prices/ but some were actually demonstrating the eomplex-looking machinery on show. Miss Shirley Rainton, for instance, was working ah injection moulding machine which turned out plastic scalp massagers in rapid suecession. For her, it was just her “normal job," but in a different locality. She was just as efficient at her work in full view of the public as in the relative privacy of a factory. “I am not nervous at all,” She said. “In fact it’s very interesting meeting the people who come to watch me at work. They are ail quite nice.” It was a different story for Miss Annette Shattock, who normally works as a dental receptionist She found it unnerving at first to be under the public gaze while she rlvetted contacts to the bases of two-way electric light switches.

“It’s not so bad when you get used to it though,” she said yesterday. Miss Shattock is from Huntly, but came down to work in Christchurch after returning from a trip to Australia. *1 did not want to go straight back into a permanent job, so I started this work about two and a half months ago,” she said. “I hope to go overseas again early next year.” The Industries Fair is Miss Shattock’s first taste of demonstration work of any kind.

“You get a bit flustered sometimes, but otherwise it is just like a normal day's work,” said Mrs L. Clausen, as she busily sewed teddy bears in front of a crowd of children.

"Sometimes you feel like having a break, but you’ve got to keep going. It can be a bit hard to concentrate when there is a crowd of four deep around you.” Mrs Clausen works at the fair every second day. As well as being an experienced machinist, she can take over as a table hand, and put the finishing touches to the toys. This requires hand sewing. Miss Bernadette McEvedy had no trouble talking to bystanders and explaining her work as she demonstrated sewing machines. "I never bother about people being in front of me and I don’t mind at all if they gather round to watch,” she said. "The work can be very tiring, though.” Miss McEvedy has sewn hundreds of Sample patterns showing the different stitches on the machine. Demonstrating is not new to her, as She is doing an increasing amount of promotion work for her firm. Although her main job at the fair is to demonstrate the machines, she can turn her hand to selling when necessary. Nearby, two women sat knitting jerseys, ready to answer any questions about the woollen goods made by their firm. They said they decided to do their knitting in their spare moments because they “thought It the right thing to do.” Mrs Ngalre McNicol, the firm’s knitting consultant, is used to promotional work, but the fair is Mrs Marie Hutchinson’s first taste of this type of work.

The picture shows Miss Shirley Rainton working an injection moulding machine making scalp maseagera at the New Zealand Industries Fair in Christchurch yesterday.