GIRLS IN OFFICES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 456, 18 May 1932, Page 7

GIRLS IN OFFICES.

Should be at Home, says Commercial Man. UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG BOYS. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, May 18. Stating that the commercial community was responsible for the extent of unemployment among boys in New Zealand at the present time, Mr W. F. Cuthbertson, speaking at a meeting of the Council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, urged the employment of boys as shorthand writers and typists. “ I have felt for a long time that we as commercial men are responsible for the position a? it exists to-day,’’ he said. “ I am strongly of the opinion that in warehouses, offices and shops far too much female labour is employed in New Zealand. . Girls have a sphere in lifd that is rightly theirs, but they should not displace boys who can do the work as well. It has been said that boys are unsatisfactory in certain classes of office work, but they must be looked to for the future, and thank God the men of to-day have carried on their businesses in the past. We cannot send all the boys away to be farmers. Many of them can become efficient at shorthand and typewriting. Let the girls stay at home and be the mothers. That is where they ought to be. Boys are not getting the encouragement due to- those who in the future have to carry on the business of the country.” Mr E. R. Render: Give me a girl for shorthand and typewriting. Mr Cuthbertson: Boys can beat them into a cocked hat.

The chairman (Mr J. Pearce Luke) said that he had some personal experience during the war of propaganda about the efficiency of women. In his opinion they “ hadn’t got it.” The committee’s report under consideration stated that in the national scheme to meet the unemployment problem which the Government had in hand full attention, it was assumed, would be given to some co-ordination on national lines that would absorb both adults and young people into useful industry and reproductive employment.