GIRLS AND BOYS.

Observer, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2, 21 September 1912, Page 2

GIRLS AND BOYS.

Thousands of Billets —No Applicants,

THE periodical exclamations of astonishment are surging through the press that a sufficient number of boys are not available for jobs that are yawning for them and that the "missus" (especially the "middle class" missus and the overworked farmer's wife) has to do her own work without the aid of a maid of all work. The boy problem is as acute in Auckland as elsewhere, and -there are a good-many-reasons for it. It must strike the average advertiser who wants a boy that the boy population is-at present comfortably provided for, or else it would be hammering on the door applying for a job. It must'

also strike the lady who wants to be " missus " to a maid of all work that no young women are going without meals and new Spring hats because they do not overwhelm her with applications for work.

The conclusion, therefore, is that the boy population is absorbed in some way or other without immediate detriment to the boys and that the girl population is getting on nicely without recourse to domestic service. One of the strongest reasons for the lack of boys to fill billets is the antagonism of the grown and organised worker to the apprenticeship of boys—a form of selfishness that will, of course, ultimately rebound like a boomerang and hit the grown worker. The parent of the average boy is something to blame too. He is often antagonistic to his son being taught a life trade at a small wage, when he can earn more money by undertaking an unskilled job at higher rates while his boyhood lasts. It is perfectly certain that the proportion of skilled workers to the population — -real craftsmen, tradesmen and mechanics of various kinds—is far too small, and that if the industries develop it will be necessary to augment the supply from outside. The belief frequently expressed that the imported artisan is always inferior to the locally produced artisan is a feeble excuse for the growing inclination to potter through life with no definite skill in any particular craft.

In those trades where manfacturers would depend more largely on boya. (if they could'get them) of necessity the work is done by adults if it is to be done at all, and of course the " cost of living" mounts up like an aeroplane. Innumerable boys who wotild make good artisans flood the already overcrowded clerkly occupations, because of their greater "respectability" and the fact that doting parents like Johnny to have a " better chance " than father had. The factory owner exclaims every three months or so that the only way out of the- tangle is to import boys to fill the jobs the locally born lad won't take. As for the girl who won't accept domestic service, it is no use grumbling about her. If she can potter along between school and matrimony without being compelled to earn her living or at least earning it as a domestic servant, she will do it: No girl who is not compelled to do so rushes domestic jobs. The pedagogic idea that the teaching of domestic science- will increase the available supply of domestic servants is of course highly absurd. If a girl wants" a servant's job she can get it without being taught the science of' housework.

The creation of a new class of domestic servants would., remove her still farther from the .-potential missus, because she would decline to. render he:' scientific services at the old rates and the " middle class " woman, and. the farmer's wife would be several timers worse off than ever. As a matter of fact, the higher education of domestic servants (or the classes from which these ladies are drawn) is the reason why the supply is ever dwindling. If, as has been suggested, the girl won't accept service because she isn't called "Miss" or "a lady/ surely there is no reason why she shouldn't possess any title she asks for as long as she washes up, etc., with accuracy and despatch. Domestic servants' "unions " have always failed, and probably always will. It is all a question of position, wages, accommodation .and holidays, and the concession of all these privileges would not necessarily bring the girls rushing to the kitchen. While commercial pursuits with definite hours and positions are available to girls, the kitchen will be abandoned. As for the farmer's wife, she has the least chance of all, mainly because girls are not bound by necessity to undertake the hardships inseparable from country life. If it. were a case of too many girls and too few jobs it would be different. Thousands of New Zealand jobs are yawning for girls and so there is not,the slightest present indication that the overburdened: " missus " will have her load shifted.: