OFFICE BOYS AND EDUCATION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LX, Issue 2751, 7 July 1898, Page 4

OFFICE BOYS AND EDUCATION.

11 An Employer " wrote to the Dunedin Star last week complaining that he re* cently advertised for an office boy, and out of an enormous number of applicants the handwriting of one was fairly decent the others were fearful displays of cramped, crabbed . hieroglyphics or sprawling spider-like scrawls." This complaint aroused the anger of 11 A Parent," who replied as follows :— What does he expect from an office boy at 58 a week ? Does he want him to write like copper-plate, to show a pass for the Junior Civil Service examination, write shorthand at a rapid rate, be an expert typewriter, and have a good knowledge of book-keeping, Euclid, algebra, Latin and English? If he expects all this for the liberal wage of 5s per week, with the ffhance of being shown to the door when

the boy a9ks for a rise, I am afraid he : s doomed to disappointment. The better class of boys do not make application for the position of " office boy" m Dunedin. It is only the "spider] ike scrawlera," who don't know what such positions mean, who send m applications. An "office boy 1 ' at five shillings a week m far too many of our officep is expected to do the work of a junior clerk tor boy's wages. In fact it some of the wagesshaving employers could manage it, they would run their offices with educated boys at, 5s a week and dispense with the services of men. Under favourable conditions, m most canes, <nn office boy can only rise to the position of a clerk at 30s or 35s a week, and it is sheer impudence to ask parents to educate their boys highly with such a prospect as that before them !"