CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 15, 11 October 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE FIRE BRIGADE. The twenty-eighth annual ball of the Fire Brigade is to be held to-morrow night, and it is hardly necessary to remind readers that this function gives them an opportunity of helping a body of public servants whose gratuitous services have been highly efficient and whose skilled work has prevented so much destruction of property. The men of the Fire Brigade are better "hands" at quelling a fire than in singing their own praises or asking for funds to carrj on their very special work, and it is because of their modesty that it seems necessary for someone else to remind the public what it owes to the men. The faithfulness of the work of tie Fire Brigade is demonstrated not only during every outbreak in the town, but by the length of the service of the men forming it. The majority of these volunteers have long service to their credit, and there is a record of twenty-five years' fire fighting in the ranks, of which New Plymouth people should be proud. Attention is naturally not centred on the quiet servants of the people during the intervals between fires, but' the dash and skill, the esprit de corps and the invaluable nature of the fireman's calling are brought home to everyone when the firebell rings. The annual ball during each year it has been held . has been a great social success, because . happily the organisation of it has been . in skilled and kindly hands, and the f people feel that this is a function that I is well worth while. Everyone knowing i how necessary public support is to this . fire brigade will not hesitate to afford the assistance vital to its existence. 1 With Mrs. Dockrill and her lady assistants as enthusiast workers the social I and financial success is assured, but if \ these remarks Temind anyone as to his 'duty and pleasure in the matter we shall be very glad. .WOMEN'S WORK. .Most people will concede that the woman worker who undertakes a man worker's ■ work and accomplishes it as well should receive the same rate of pay, but very few who see deeper than the sur-'

face of things social can be found' to admit that the general employment of young women in 'business is good for them or for the nation. It ivas never intended that women should compete with men, and such competition has never yet as a whole been proved to be a success. A corporation has no soul, so it is not likely that a great American house lately discharged all its women employees because the company was worrying about their health. It was merely a question of cash with the linn. The woman worker in competition with the man worker is only so for a season. Her real destiny, in the large majority of cases, is marriage, and she is merely a sort of tourist through the land of business; and it seems reasonable to believe that her real object in life is seriously impaired by the passing tour. The Commonwealth has lately been making exhaustive comparisons, and the results show that strictly from a business standpoint it does not really pay to employ girls in men's positions. In the Post-master-General's Department 43 per l'OOfl of the girls were granted leave of absence for illness, and the male figures were 29 per 1000. That is to say. the work was a greater strain on the women than on the men, and that the Commonwealth, quite apart from the business aspect, should view the position from the national point of view. The. telephone bureaux, both in Australia and New Zealand, are largely worked by girls, and this especially trying work is not kind to women. Of the telephone girls in the Commonwealth 46 per 1000 had to be granted sick leave as a against 28 per 1000 of the men. The average sick leave for the girls was 11..9 days, and the average leave for men 4.7 days. We believe that in the dim future statesmen and others who see further than the date on a coin will fight for the return of women to women's sphere, not for any selfish commercial antagonism, but because unnatural occupations decrease the vitality of the coming mothers of the people. In Australia and New Zealand this phase is of paramount importance. , I