HOW MELBOURNE BUSINESS GIRLS LIVE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 453, 18 March 1909, Page 2

HOW MELBOURNE BUSINESS GIRLS LIVE.

Thkkk ate hundreds of young girls working in shops in and about Melbourne for wages which range from five shillings a week to twelve shillings and sixpence. The reason why wages are low is that there are plenty of girls ready to work for those wages. And the reason why there are plenty of girls prepared to work for those wages is that, for the most part, they are not obliged to keep themselves. They live in their own homes, and the father, or brothers, or perhaps some specially gifted sisters keep the home going. Whether they go into shops, or stay at home, these girls have to be kept. And if they go into shops the few shillings a week that they earn will keep them in pocket money and perhaps in clothes, too. This is the first thing a correspondent of the Melbourne Argus learned when he began to make enquiries. There is always a large supply of such girls to draw upon. One girl of his acquaintance, who earns twelve shillings and sixpence a week, keeps herself on that sum. She pays seven shillings and sixpence a week for her board. She shares a small, poorly furnished room in a little villa with another girl similarly situated. So much she told the correspondent willingly. But when he asked questions about the kind of food she got to eat she was loyally reticent. “It is better than you believe,” she insisted. Of course, there are wonderful housekeepers who feed their families with a marvellously small outlay. And to such women the extra fifteen shillings a week, which would pay the rent, would be a big help, evea

with two- extra mouths to feed. But in very many cases the necessity for finding cheap lodgings must mean that the girls are very illfed. Out of the remaining five shillings the young girl must find money for clothes, tram fares, all her pleasures, and the little incidental expenses which occasionally crop up. She used to work in a town shop, she told the correspondent, but went into a suburban shop so that she might live near enough to walk to her work, and save the train ticket. The monthly ticket to the nearer suburbs ranges in price from ys to 14s per month, and is a considerable item, therefore, in the business girl’s expenditure. Five shillings a week seems little enough for clothes alone. Yet there are girls like the one referred to above who manage to save a shilling a week out of this, to create a fund for emergencies. The correspondent doubts whether she could manage, however, if she was not a fairly skilful needlewoman, and if she had not the occasional use of a friend’s machine. Mercifully, she says, a shabby skirt is not very conspicuous behind the counter, and black dresses have the advantage of keeping neat much longer than coloured ones. “ There are others who are worse off than I am,” said the girl, “ and they manage to look just as neat, and are always cheerful.”