WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 14, 7 April 1927, Page 13

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

A CAUSE OF UNEMPLOYMENT N.Z. ENGINEER’S IMPRESSIONS (From Our Resident (Correspondent. ) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department, Mr. F. W. Furkert, returns to New with the impression gained from big business men in Britain that the measure of unemployment in England is largely due to the measure of the number of women who have gone into industry since the war. There were, he said, after he stepped off the ship last evening, over a million more women employed in different industries than before the war. “Like the men who go to fight,” he said, “they have, so to speak, tasted blood, and now will not let go. They are after the high wages.” Mr Furkert was struck with the excellent type of women in the factories, however, and said his conception of a poor type had been entirely destroyed. This was due to the fact that there were so many offering, that industry could pick and choose for the best services. Something of the same thing was experienced in the United States, where one big commercial man had said, “The best men we have here are the women.” Mr. Furkert, while away, inspected many public works in different parts of the world, including America and England, and declares that big firms at home are overwhelmed with orders for manufactures and are working at full capacity to turn them out. The coal strike was a scandalous waste of public resources. During the stoppage he w*as in London and coal was being imported from many countries on the Continent, a million tons being brought in one week in order to keep the wheels running. Roads and electricity were naturally singled out by Mr. Furkert for special observation, and in respect of electricity he considers we lead the world in rural distribution of power. In many places in England only a few miles