MISTRESS AND SERVANT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 52, 2 March 1901, Page 6 (Supplement)

MISTRESS AND SERVANT.

IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.

(From the "People's Journal.")

Since the days probably of Adam and Mrs Adam there has been a social if not a commercial problem which has gone almost entirely without an attempt at solution, and which in consequence has assumed tremendous proportions, but which, at last, is receiving attention. It is the servant girl problem. Was there ever a day when the housewives were not complaining that satisfactory girls, maids, or servants could not be had for love or money? Has a week ever passed when the women or girls who compose the serving classes did not brood over the wrongs of undue restraint; overwork,

underfeeding 1 , cruelty, and petty exactions? Is there anywhere on the civilised globe a household exempt from this universal difficulty, or exalted above trie, incessant discussion of the help problem? The newspapers, the drawingrooms, the functions of the elect, break out with servant-discussion measles constantly—and THERE IS NO RESPITE. The subject forms such a large part in an ordinary woman's life, and so deeply affects her daily happiness, that it is no small wonder she reverts to it in sympathetic society. On all sides, even from the best mistresses, we hear of the difficulty in finding and retaining good reliable servants. We are in a transitional period, and it is difficult to prophecy the exact evolution of the question in the twentieth century. One probability is that people with small incomes will have

to adopt a very simple style of living, and do much of their domestic work themselves. At the present moment some ladies of small.means are-managing very comfortably without servants at all. They do their own work •with the help of an occasional charwoman, and residential flats or half-flats which are now being built so extensively in large cities gHatly facilitate arrangements of this kind. Some people think that this mode of life -will more and more prevail among: intelligent people who have to manage on a little. It will knock many absurd conventions on the head, and will promote health, comfort, and a more natural and simple life.