DEARTH OF GIRL LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14690, 26 May 1911, Page 8

DEARTH OF GIRL LABOUR.

DRAPERY FIRM'S COMPLAINT.

[BY TELEGRAPH.OWN CORRESPONDENT.] OiiiusTCHimcH, Thursday. Inquiries made in Christchurch confirm to some extent the recent report in the Labour Department's monthly journal to the effect that there is a shortage of girl labour in dressmaking* and other branches of the drapery trade in this city. A firm which employs several hundred girls, and which claims that it pays the highest wages in New Zealand, has found a good deal of difficulty in obtaining sufficient hands during the past 12 months. There are ample supplies for positions behind the counters, but the workrooms, especially where dresses and hats are made, seem to offer few attractions to young girls. This firm at the present time could find work for about 50 girls in its workrooms if they came forward. / It has also found some.difficulty in obtaining an adequate supply of boys, but this is largely accounted for by the fact that their halfholiday falls on Thursday, which is not in as much favour with boys as Saturday. The head of another firm finds that the position in Christchurch. is not nearly as bad as it is in Wellington. This, he says, is because Government contracts are being concentrated in the northern city, all the labour there being absorbed. Lately Wellington firms have been given eontracts which formerly were divided amongst firms in the four largo centres. If the old course had been followed there would be less congestion in Wellington, and evidently more satisfaction in other places.