WOMEN LUMBERJACKS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20602, 1 November 1941, Page 5

WOMEN LUMBERJACKS

BRITISH TIMBER CAMPS FORESTRY SERVICE URGED (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Oct. 31. The increased use of women in felling and peeling timber is mentioned in the latest report of the House of Commons select committee which examines national expenditure in wartime. The report says that in British timber camps “a home labpur force has been largely recruited from men and girls who have never done such work before. Girls whom the committee saw working on one site had 'only recently been shop girls, hairdressers, and domestic servants, and one forewoman had been a ballet mistress. They were chiefly employed in peeling the felled timber, but they also fell some of the smaller trees. Although their production varies, and in all cases is naturally somewhat lower than that of the men, it is stated to be efficient. "‘The committee recommends that a Women’s Forestry Service should be organised on the same lines as the Women’s Land Army, ancf urges the speeding-up of recreation facilities and the improvement of hygienic conditions in forestry camps, which are necessarily situated in remote places.”