GIRLS COME TO THE CITY, Continued from page 31

Te Ao Hou, September 1961, Page 62

GIRLS COME TO THE CITY, Continued from page 31 Mr White encourages the girls to take a practical interest in dressmaking. Some stay after work to make their own dresses, the firm hopes to find some girls who will go to technical college to learn designing—at the company's expense. It is a surprise to Mr White that with so much natural taste, Maori girls do not go in for dress designing as a profession. He keeps on looking for someone with this ambition. Shortly after the girls' arrival the firm formed the SOMA Softball team, which in the first year of its existence won the Wellington Junior A Grade Championship. There are also plans for the girls joining a hockey team. Most of them put money regularly into a savings bank; last Christmas they had saved enough for their trip home, complete with presents. The girls come to work regularly, only one has left, only one has, for a short time given some slight trouble in the hostel where she lived. In this case some help from Maori Welfare was necessary, also a sympathetic Maori woman was found to look after the girl for a while.