"WHAT ARE GIRLS COMING TO?"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 201, 20 May 1919, Page 2

"WHAT ARE GIRLS COMING TO?"

THE MODERN GIRL'S LIFE. Rofreshingly straight and original addresses were .given .by girls in Melbourne un May 1 at a conference convened by the Australian. Christian Student Movement and tho Y.W.C.A. conjointly, which was held at tho G'onnibero Hall, 'i'liero were a largo number of speakers at the t\Teo sessions, but interest centred around three or four speeches of a very nnusual type. In the morning Miss Neill Evans, an ex-factory worker, said peoplo often asked, "What aro girls coming : to?" They never stopped to think that tha modern girl is setting tho pace for tho future. One of her characteristics was her love of looking nice and of having beautiful clothes and other things. Peoplo thought she did not know when to stop—but she stopped when her funds had run out. Weighing everything, tho girl of to-day did not come out too badly. Girls often had no holidays for years. They, had moat-monotonous work 'to do; and often when they went homo at night they found no tea ready; some of the children crying, aud their mothers worn out. They had to turn to and get the meal, help with- the children, and wash up, before they could think of tho evening to themselves. Miss Dunlop, matron of the Richmond Y.W.C.A. hostel, said it waa a better investment to put .£3 or ,£G into helping a girl to dress nicely, and thus save her self-respect, than to put twice that nmouut,into rescue work. If girls were down at-.heels and shabby their instinct was x to hide and to feel they were nobodies, and it did not matter much what became of them.

Mrs. Downing said-, girls should bo taught dressmaking, and to buy good materials to mako up for themselves, but Miss Stevenson said that if girls had been at sowing machines from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ihey did not want to sew again in the evening. Wages should bo high enough to enable girls to.' buy somo of their clothing made up, and not to have to mako every stitch for themselves. (Applause.) Airs.. Pulsion! s.iid help must'be given to the girls as they want it, nut as women would like to give it. In one circle she knew the girls said, "Oh, for goodness' sake, ring off religion! Wo like the straight kind, of thing and all that, but wo hope wo don't look' liko them!" Another speaker said that girls were too' tired lor self-improvement at night time after being on their feet l'rom S until 5. ■ Yet another said the problem went back .to allowing girls to leave scliool at 11. In some localities girls leave school the day they reach 11, just because their mothers did, andjjccauso it i 3 tho practice in those localities to do bo. These children idle at homo until ono fine day they decide upon looking tor i job. Perhaps they stay one day, leaving at night because they "can't Kianci it." Perhaps they stay a week or two, and then throw up thoir. places because they do not'liko the'girls next to them. Their mothers have no control over them. ' These girls have fur coats for a while—on'time payment—then tho coats disappear. Everybody knew tho meaning of that. They' nearly always keep the money they .earn, and spend it na they pleaso,