THE GIRL CLERK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 14, 17 June 1913, Page 6

THE GIRL CLERK.

BUSINESS CAPABILITIES.

I OPINIONS 01' EMPLOYERS. DOES SHE BEAT THE BOY? Christchurch, Juae 11. When at a recent meeting of a suburban body a resolution was moved to the effect Unit a typisto should be engaged to assist the clerk at a salary of 15s per week, an interesting discussion was provoked. "A woman's place is in the home," said one member. "A typiste will learn nothing in our office to fit her for the domestic duties of wifehood and motherhood. Let us get a boy for the position. We will be training bim for a career."

"I would not have a boy in my office," said another member of the body; and all the rest agreed with him. "A bey will stay for a few weeks, and will then leave for a position with a larger salary. We will merely be makin our office a place in which boys may serve their apprenticeship to clerical work. For 15s. we can get a girl who. will be of use to us."

A Star reporter, who made inquiries of a few employers of boy and girl clerical labor, found that the same opinion was expressed by the majority of those interested. The consensus of opinion appeared to be that a girl of sixteen could be obtained with comparative ease—a neat, legible writer,, with a mind., and With : , : «i$ power v of.;.;.learning,! whereas to obtain a'boy of the'sam* age, of whom the same could be said, ' was So extremely difficult, as to appear in many crises impossible. "There i» a continual procession of girls passing from school through the commercial colleges into the offices of the city," said , the • manager of a large drapery flra. I "Without them I,.db not, know what the employers would do for clerical fcbor. They are neat, careful, and intelligent, and are well trained in the »vork they are required to do. They can -am their wages right from the start, but, when I take a boy into my office I have as a rule to teach him for a nonth or so before h'e is of much use to me. I have to induce him to write legibly, to avoid the more disfiguring blots :md erasures, and to refrain from wool-gathering and performing such feats as adding tlreefifths of a penny "to the Merivale fiveeighths, as one boy attempted to do." "But, -do you not find that .here are many classes of work in which you can employ boys, but not girls?" asked the reporter.- "Practically none,' said the manager. "Girls go to the jost, and collect debts, and sign cheques, and do all kinds of things for which it is the popular delusion that masculine fhroness is necessary. As a matter v/f fact, girls, up tpHhe age of twenty or twenty-one carry" far more weight and ippear mixh more responsible beings •'.ban boys of the same age. They grow up earlier." In the majority of tie tffices it was the same. Most of them appeared to employ a large number of girls, a few men, and a small proportion of boys, if at all. There were offices where there were no girls at all, but all boys and men were at work, but everyone !»&.«'. a r good word for the girl. The boy generally received a, bad hearing everywhere. "Well, wlvo' is to': train' up your menclerks, anyway?'' asked the ipor*,ec at last. It was to a lawyer he vas speaking. . "None of you seem io employ boys if you can get girls." "Men "will always be wanted," said the lawyer. "Girls are suitable for certain kinds of work, and for that they are needed. The majority of them take up office work as a means of livelihood between school and marriage. It i 3 merely a stop-gap with tliem, and not a career. For positions where meticulous attention to routine work is required for a small wage, give me the girl evtry time, but beyond a certain s>Uge they do not get. A boy, on the contrary, is chiefly noticeable for the nbsoiue of such a thing as meticulous (.are in his makeup, but for its absence he atones by the possession of initiative and inspiration. He does small wor« hddly, but big work well. T do not hilicre in the old idea that the Voy wii.i is going to do big things "n the world is, the boy who is intent >ly carefu". and reat. The best type of i;<iy n wha* lias ll.e 'Divine Discontent' which leads to success. It makes him restl.iss, tut it 'gives him initiative and, iwiirgy. It Is a matter of psychology. 'The office girl will do the routine work to perfection, where the boy will H -nittrly and ciiroj less, but the boy will .lo t l ic big work of the world."