CLERICAL WORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25053, 17 November 1944, Page 6

CLERICAL WORK

SHORTAGE OF POSITIONS

EX-SERVICEMEN'S NEEDS Difficulty in placing a considerable number of discharged servicemen seeking clerical employment is being experienced' in Auckland by the Services Commercial Contact Centre. A report to this effect was made to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce by the centre yesterday. The chamber decided to recommend to employers generally the need, when labour is being engaged to replace female labour by returned men at every opportunity. The Contact Centre stated that it was known that in many cases employers now had in their offices a greater proportion of females than was formerly the case and that some of the positions now filled by women are suitable for male employees. Debt to Returning Men While the centre realised that in many instances women had been engaged to discharge temporarily the duties formerly undertaken by men now with the. forces, to wlioin the employers had a legal obligation for employment on discharge, it was held tliat there must be many cases where the supremo sacrifice had been made, or where for other reasons re-employment liability no longer existed. In such cases, at least, the centre urged employers to geek ex-servicemen to fill the positions. "Although there is an undoubted obligation to those women who have helped out -during the absence of our men overseas,'.' the report continued, "it is believed that regard, and undue regard under the special conditions, is often had to the fact that the male wage scale is higher than the female, and, in some cases at least employers are refraining from displacing their female employees lest these should become the subject of manpower direction to uncongenial occupations. However laudable such feelings and loyalties may be in normal times, it is urged upon employers that just priority should and must be given to the discharge of the debt of honour to returning men." Women's Difficulties The difficulties of the present position were emphasised by members of the chamber. Women were reluctant, it was said, to give up posts not knowing where they might be directed. In one case it had been suggested that a woman should be allowed to give up work altogether, but it had to be pointed out that that would be unfair while other women were being directed. The president, Mr. F. G. Baskett, stated that funds for the centre were coming in at the rate of about £2O a day. At present £3190 was in hand. RAILWAY REVENUEOCTOBER DROP £117,673 A working profit of £115,546 shown by the railway accounts for the four weeks ended October 14 compares with £233,219 for the corresponding period last year, a decrease of £117,673. The gross revenue was £1,071,764, a decrease of £97,390, and expenses at £956,218 were £20,281 higher. ; For the period from April 1 to October 14 the gross revenue was £7,413,932, a decrease of £964,073 from that of the similar period last year, and expenses at £6,728,358 were £234,188 higher. Net revenue was £685,574, compared with £1,883,835. DIRECTOR APPOINTED OTAGO SCHOOL OF MINES (P.A.) DUNEDIN, Thursday The appointment is announced of Dr S. R. B. Cooke, at present research professor of mineral dressing at the Montana School of Mines, as director of the School of Mines at the University of Otago. It dates from the opening of the 1945 session. He takes the position left vacant on the death of Dr A. R. Andrew in 1942 and temporarily filled by Mr H, G. Black, who is retiring.

Dr Cooke, who is 37, was born at Wanganui and was educated there and at Hamilton and Thames. He won a New Zealand Government School of Mines Scholarship in 1924 and graduated from Otago University in 1928 with the degrees of B.Sc. (chemistry), B.E. (metallurgy), and A.O.S.N. (metallurgy). He was awarded a postgraduate travelling research scholaship from tho London Bureau of Mines. In 1928, he won the only research fellowship offered outside the United States by_ the Missouri University, where he gained the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in metallurgy. At the end of 1931, Dr Cooke became Research Fellow in Metallurgy at the Missouri School of Mines and was tho first Fellow to obtain a doctorate there. He has had wide experience in gold and coal mines in New Zealand, steelworks in Australia and research in iron ores and other minerals in British Columbia and various parts of America.