GIRLS FOR LAND ARMY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25365, 25 October 1943, Page 2

GIRLS FOR LAND ARMY

RECRUITS FROM FACTORIES MANUFACTURERS CONCERNED ‘‘Already an alarming number of girls employed in factories in Dunedin have expressed their intention of enlisting for service in the Women’s Land Army.” said the secretary of the Dunedin Manufacturers’ Association (Mr F. L. Hitchens) on Saturday. Manufacturers would be relieved, he added, at the prompt response by the Government to the urgent request of the Dunedin Manufacturers’ Association, through the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, for measures to prevent the withdrawal of women engaged in essential work in the cities. Provision was now being made for employers to have the right of appeal where recruits were already in an essential industry. “At this time of the year,” Mr Hitchens continued, “ it is possible that the strain of work at war-time tempo in the factories is causing restlessness, resulting in the more or less temporary desire of many girls to take up outdoor work during the better weather. I feel, however, that in many instances they have not given sufficient consideration to what this outdoor work would entail.” In effect, it would result in the loss of their annual holidays, which were customarily taken at Christmas time. Girls leaving factories for farms at the present time would probably find that at Christmas they would be busily engaged, perhaps for long hours, on work on the land. Then would come the harvesting season, when the combined effect of the strain, of their earlier work in the factories and their initial work on the farms might diminish the attractions of life on the land to the detriment of fanning interests. It was essential, Mr Hitchens said, that a proper balance should be preserved between labour for primary and secondary industries. Just as it was important that the right type of girl should be employed in industry, so it was necessary that girls enlisting for farm service should show ability for that work. He suggested that the authorities should make a careful survey of the women serving in the armed forces, as many of them could probably be released, at least temporarily, to relieve the farm labour position. He pointed out that these girls had in most cases already adjusted themselves to the requirements of outdoor work.