DOMESTIC SERVANTS AND FARM WORKERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXI, Issue 7934, 16 December 1909, Page 4

DOMESTIC SERVANTS AND FARM WORKERS.

To the Editor. Sir,—ln. a recent issue of your paper there appeared a reprint article- complaining of the great ■scarcity-of domestic servants, and the writer see ins quite alarmed about such a state j.of affairs ; but if ho were to talk less about the fact and devote his energies to seeking a remedy, it would be time more profitably spent. Now,; what lis the cause and what is a remedy ? Sir, I venture to state my opinion that, !as long as the domestic is denied justice, and until the inhuman manner m which they are treated is abolished, domestics will always be scarce, and one has ito compliment the fair sex on the position they have taken up ; but, on the other side of the question, it will do the community but great harm. In the first place, the factory employer prefers girl labour m preference to men on account of the economy he can practice, but yet tlio girls ''• can get more remuneration for their services, and obtain stated hours and stated holidays. No wonder the fair sex do not take to housework, where they work from ten to eleven hours a day and receive but very small wages, besides being treated as if they were inferior to their employers ; but m many cases they are the reverse m this respect. Besides competing with their fathers And brothers for factory work, their environment m suSh buildings is detrimental to. their health, and will m time lower the standard of the physique of the rising generation, and cause, as wo see every ' day/undue misery and suffering of innocent babes. During the short session of Parliament a petition was presented urging the Government to import more girls ; but would this solve the "uestion ?■ I contend that if these girls were.-brought but here, after they had. tasted and seen to what';privations they were subjected 'm eompjirison with.jth'e factory worker they would follovfa the steps^ of their predecessors into the factory. ' '"No,' sir ; the domestics and the farm workers are badly treated, and until their/: conditions are improved they always will be scarce, and rightly so, too.•: '"'"■' H. L. WASHER. Ashburton, December 14.