Girls Wanted.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14141, 26 February 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

Girls Wanted.

—: —-♦» WORK, BUT NO WORKERS. There is, says a Melbourne daily, a serious dearth of female labour in Victoria., Hundreds of housewives are dady wringing then- hands in despair at the fact. But after alb, with them it is only inconvenience that follows. In the business suffers. The managers pen tempting advertisements and walk hopefully next morning to the works., .They are al» having, the same experience—pot a single response. Reasons can..be_ found , for this dearth of girl labour. The number of factories m Victoria has increased at a remarkable-rate in recent years, and this summer they have been working at h »g{>, pressure. In -189& there were 16,140 females employed at factories. Last .year number -had grown to nearly 81J36-—an nncfi-ease of nearly 100 per cent., The growth of factories aeems to havefoutstepped the increase in the female labour market. Another reason carf be given for the dearth. Twelve nwntKrago Parliament decreed that-no/garUunder 15 'years of age should be-aUowed to work in a factory. StjraightawayJ 1000 tgtas 13 and 15 years of age had to leave fheir fcencheawThe shortage has not been made circumstances > it cannot be maae up. v , "ProgT 688 .- 4 * 8 2S iati P?."' 3 »>--*' day, jent to theJcityfjournU »n alternative. They wrote:—Melbourne, though-a. wonderfai.«aty l 'M J ntot *hat, while the- remarkable increase in the numberjrf has tp thousands of-girls **aS9?C J r *it eß •ands or girls-in the* country "districts who wouMtbeJdeliehted toseoure-em-pJoym*ntr established for-.an 1 example. are hundreds* "-?/-. !^ l S*J^Ct# t »''ii n - te l u ß ß nt <-girls in its' suburbsr whose 'ltoVemttploymentifor .the"mnThe,.girh «a»^^ng|j^orlf l^^fflere^is-no-i »iervK»; orsdfessni'ii-* these. <pn.lvv absorb, i*iirjr ■maffipart of the .female labour'

available. "If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain," arid, if-the moun-tain-bred girls of Beechworth will not go td Melbourne factories; -\ the proprietors of those factories^ should do as the manufacturers of London did, viz., take their factories-into the country, where the surroundings are purer and healthier, and an abundance of labour is available.