CHRISTCHURCH: When at a recent meeting of a suburban local body a motion was proposed to the effect that a typiste should be engaged to assist the clerk at a salary of 15s a 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 him for a career.''
''I would not have a boy in my office,'' said another and all the rest agreed with him.
''A boy will stay for a few weeks and will then leave for a position with a larger salary. We shall merely be making our office a place in which boys may serve their apprenticeships 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 labour found that the same opinion was expressed by the majority of those interested. The consensus of opinion appeared to be that a girl of 16 could be obtained with comparative ease, a neat legible writer, with a business-like methodical mind, and with adaptability and power of learning. Whereas to obtain a boy of the same age, of whom same could be said, was so extremely difficult as to appear in many cases impossible. In the majority of the offices 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 any at all. There were offices where no girls at all, but all boys and men, were at work, but everyone had a good word for the girl. The boy generally received a bad hearing everywhere.
''Well, who is to train up your men clerks?'' asked the reporter at last. He was speaking to a lawyer, who appeared speculative.
''None of you seem to 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 is merely a stop-gap with them, and not a career. For positions where meticulous attention to routine work is required for a small wage, give me the girl every time; but beyond a certain stage they do not get. The boy, on the contrary, is chiefly noticeable for the absence of such a thing as meticulous care in his make-up, but for its absence he atones by the possession of initiative and inspiration. He does small work badly, but big work well. I do not believe in the old idea that the boy who is going to do big things in the world is the boy who is intensely careful and neat. The best type of boy is that which has the ''divine discontent'' which leads to success. It makes him restless, but it gives him initiative and energy. It is a matter of psychology. The official girl will do the routine work to perfection where the boy will be untidy and careless, but the boy will do the big work of the world.''
• Yesterday the shop assistants in Christchurch and the districts in the vicinity of the city experienced the pleasure of ceasing work for the day at 1 o'clock, as a result of the recent poll fixing Saturday as the day on which the weekly half-holiday is to be observed. Very fine weather prevailed, and the various attractions provided in the shape of football and hockey games were well patronised. The effect of the change in the day of the half-holiday was fully apparent in the streets during the afternoon. As a rule on Saturday the streets of the city are thronged by people parading up and down. Yesterday they wore a comparatively deserted appearance. All the shops were closed, and there was really nothing to keep the people in town. - ODT, 16.6.1913
