THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3339, 13 March 1918, Page 50

THE WEEK.

The other day I happened to read a magazine story in which a young officer, who- had discovered that his lady-love, with whom he had had a horrid misunderstanding, was helping in the camp canteen, was seized with the brilliant idea of volunteering to be orderly officer for the day, as in the course of his rounds of insnection the canteen and its workers were included, and cut short the effusive gratitude of the man whose duty he was taking by saying darkly that he had an ulterior motive. "Sounds a nasty sort of thing to have about you." grinned the

other man, and went off to play golf. Well, whether it is a nasty sort of tiling to have about or not, i must confess to having an ulterior motive in my advocacy of gardening as a career for girls the other week. I was thinking of it not only as an advantageous thing in itself, but as an alternative to an occupation such as clerical work, into which girls are crowding at present, without realising that they may be crowded out when the men come back after the war. For girls who have taken up office work as a way of "doing their bit," or who for other reasons do not intend to keep on with it for more than a year or two, the matter is not very important, but I should advise girls—and their parents too —who want a career for themselves to look ahead a little and think what conditions will be like after the war. At present there is no doubt that clerical work has many attractions, and that it is easy enough for a girl with a fair amount of cleverness and some training to get quite a good, position. But that won't last for ever. In time the men will be coming back again, and many of them will want their old positions, so that there is bound to be a certain* amount of disorganisation. And please mark this r- girls will have to remember that the men who come back have a right to their old places if they want them, and it is the girls who will have to go. It must be a case of "fighting men first." What are the displaced girls going to do? At Home the question has been receiving very serious consideration, -and a. conference was called towards the j end of last year by 'the Women's I Industrial Council, to which were invited | representatives of the trade unions conI cerned with clerical work —the National Union of Clerks, the War 'Emergency Clerical Association, the Association for Women Secretaries and Clerks, and the Railway Clerks' Association —and of such bodies as the Women Workers' Federation, the National Federation of Girls' Clubs, ; the Suffrage Societies, the Headmistresses Association, the Y.W.C.A., and the Girls' Friendly Society, as well as the women heads of Government departments and their welfare supervisors. There the problem is likely to be a very pressing i one, as there is a vast amount of Govern- | ment work —the Army Pay Department | alone employs something like 15,000 girls—j which will cease altogether after the war, and the girls engaged in it, unless they turn their attention to something else, will help to flood a market which will be already overstocked with clerical labour. One danger which those who called the ' conference are preparing to face is that of ; the "pocket-money worker," the woman who lives at home and pays • nothing for her keep, and can therefore ' accept a lower rate of wages than the girl who has to support herself entirely. "The pocket-money worker" was beginning to be a problem even before the war, and war-conditions have given her the chance of her life. "A very large number—without fear of contradiction one might say thousands—of tb°- clerical workers to-day employed on Government jobs are 'pocketmoney' wage-earners," says a writer in one of the English papers. "They have come, perhaps, from patriotic motives into Government work, and they have the money which they earn for their own spending. Their manner. of spending is open for anyone to see —high-heeled boots, transparent stockings, low-throated blouses, and the inevitable fur coat or furcoloured coat, with its inevitable pockets. What they do with their-earnings should I be no one's business but their own. | Unfortunately, it- is not. The habit of I frequent new clothes becomes a passion, ! and it is not unlikely that in the keen competition for the limited amount of clerical , work available after y the war j these girls living at home will be prepared to accept lower wages than the legitimate worker in order to- retain ;their pocliHmoney." [ do not know to what extent the pocket-money worker was in evidence out here before' the war, but I should not think there was very much of her. The : colonial girl has a pretty good opinion of ! herself, and is not going to put in a hard i day's work without getting something i more than pocket-money out of it. After | the war, however, things may be different. j Now that hundreds of girls who a few i years ago would not have thought of i working • have tasted the delights of ! independence and discovered the interest •of a regular occupation, there will be | no desire on their part to retire ! into private life when the war is I over. One does not blame them for I that, but they should at least learn not to be "blacklegs." Either they should ! leave clerical work to those whose proi fession it is, and take up something else ; or if they stay on, as they have a perfect ! right to do if they are good workers, they ! must not help to bring down the rate i Of wages unduly. There are so many i avenues of work opening up for women nowadays that a girl has a wide choice before her when she leaves school, and | should think carefully all round the sub- ' ject before making up her mind. If she can afford to spend time and money on training, or to take the risk of some new venture in the field of women's work,

she should make use of her opportunities, and leave the easily-learned employments for those not so fortunate as she is. ELIZABETH.