GIRLS AND BUSINESS MATTERS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 21, 19 October 1907, Page 3

GIRLS AND BUSINESS MATTERS.

1 Every girl before she leaves school should i be given a business training, not necessarily profound, or very extensive, but practical.

- She. could acquire in threo months practically 3 all that it is necessary for her to know. Es--5 pecially should she bo warned as to what sho j should not do without obtaining legal ad- ', vice. Some ordinary details about leases 3 might be told her, the dangers of a repairing ; j lease undertaken without a knowledge of what j it entails, the essentials in a house that may t be insisted on by a tonant, .the claims that 3 may justly bomado by a landlord,-the treatl ment that should be 'given to servants, tho , 3 notice'of dismissal necessary, tho faults that justify a mistress :in immediately discharging . ' a domestic or governess,: and many other • j things of the kind which come before most . j womon as problems to bo solved." I am not 5 suggesting that every girl needs; or.should ■' _ got, the legal and business training of a ' p solicitor or an accountant, but she should know generally what things mean, and what j ■ they involvo, the obligations she undertakes by carrying out a certain courso of action, I ' and tho monetary or othor ponaltios that may result oither from following it or neglecting ; it. • • ' ■ ' Young women havo a tendency in many ' ; instances to put aside the responsibilities of .life as ; not affecting thoni. :. They' do not J care to enquire about business or, what that ■ or this means' until they find themselvos' ' actually confronted with some difficult situa- ' tion. If thoy had any idea that, as human 1 beings, they ought to know a little about ' what they will havo to do in lifo, the case } ! would be very different, but this they are . 1 content to ignore. Other girls would laugh ' at them if they sought "for information on such points; young men, tliey fear,.'might ■1 think them too serious and sensible, but .the ; widow or tho woman who does not ask, soon • finds the awkwardness that results from her . having regarded such things as outsido her [ lifo. The schoolmistress of the futuro will ! see that not a girl leaves her school without [ knowing how to sign a cheque without being told what is meant by a "forged" or i a "dishonoured" cheque, - without learning \ ; how—and why—to cross cheques, without knowing something about wills, legacy duty, i income tax, and all the othor such matters that a woman who has to act in her own interests finds sho ought to know. Such know- , ledge is not very burdensome, and not half as difficult to acquire as it sounds. It , would spare innumerable, anxieties later on, if ono were, warned of what is essential to be known, and knew what steps to take to render everyday agreements quite legal and binding, learned a little how to mauago ones money, be the. sum big or little, was told why high interest is mostly unsafe, and so did not fall into tho errors of omission that often do such harm. Rich girls generally know many of these details, because it is essential for them, and they have business men in. their employ who instruct them as to their duties, 'it is chiefly poor girls or girls of but modest fortune who enrich by thoir mistakos and blunders tho sharks that in this world so often prey on the weak and the ignorant. We all hope to escape thorn, but never can bo sure; and tho possession of a littlo commonsenso and instruction as to the right method of carrying on business matters would in most cases savo tho womcii who so frequently, under existing circumstances, becomo victims, or at best, cause endless trouble to their friends by their lack of business knowledge of the most elementary kind. — C. O'Connor Eccles, in ." Hearth and Homo."