THE GIRL IN THE BANK

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1565, 17 June 1916, Page 4

THE GIRL IN THE BANK

• The girl in the bank in an official capacity was unthinkable before the war. Now she promises to become a permanent fixture. It was thought that she would be unequal to the strain of the work, and so she would have been had not conditions been made much easier for her than has hitherto been thought necessary for the men. The girl is a newcomer to the bank, and the new conditions having been made to suit her, she may, under them, be as well, or better able to cope with the work than the men, who, in some instances both in Great Britain and Australasia', have been required to work unconscionably long hours. Reference was made by the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand last week to the employment of girls in that institution to take the place of men who have gone on active service. The men who had been left behind have had to slick to it, foregoing all annual leave since the war. The directors are not unmindful, however, of this genuine self-sacrifice of the men who have remained, and cordially acknowledge their devotion to duty. But the “wastage” of war if it goes on, is to be made up by girls. “We will shortly have 150 of them at work in our colonial branches,” said the chairman, “and owing to the ever-increasing shortage of trained bank clerks, it has been necessary to place women in positions which were formerly considered to be the exclusive domain of men. If, ns seems more than likely, the depletion of the male staff for military purposes continues, we will have to take on many more.” The hope is expressed that as women clerks become better acquainted with the work more men may be set free to go.