The Press. MONDAY, APRIL 20, 1908. ASSISTED IMMIGRATION OF DOMESTIC SERVANTS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13094, 20 April 1908, Page 6

The Press. MONDAY, APRIL 20, 1908. ASSISTED IMMIGRATION OF DOMESTIC SERVANTS.

From time to time the Minister for Labour, and other members of the pre-' eeut Government, have spoken in I timid sort of way of the. advantages of encouraging" immigrants of the right stamp,' especially domestio servants, to come to the colony. They seem, however, to lack either the courage or the power of initiative to * a ****° any "*™S- oroiiv_tep towards carrying out such a policy. The Government of Queensland is: much more enterprising in this respect. That State is considerably below New Zealand in the matter of residents _-d resources, but it shows far more prbgressiTeness in encouraging the advent of moro population. Domestio servants, of a ; suitable stamp, for example, are given free passages from England; to the colony, and although there » a very Btrong Labour party

in Queensland, we _aye not heard of their raising any objection to-the practice. There is really no reason why they should object, and apparently they are enlightened enough to see this. We hare not the least doubt that it the present shortage of female labour in New Zealand were supplied by means of suitable immigrants, the workers here would benefit as much as any class of the community. •. At the present, time some of our factories are unable to work to their full capacity oa account of tho scarcity of female workers. A greater output would ~__tean not only more profit to the shareholders of the companies interested, but would mean more employment for male workers. Again, it cannot be too often pointed out that a immigrant who is a new competitor in the' one calling which he or she follows is a consumer of the products of many local industries, and so provides work for many local employees. As regards domestic servants, we are convinced that, if suitable selected immigrants were brought out to the colony free, the result would benefit the whole community. At tho present time there are simply not enough domestic servants in New Zealand to "go round." It is not a question of tho rate of wages, because, owing to the "general reluctance of . New Zealand ■girls to "go into -Mr-vice," as it is called, the number available, is —_ufficient 's. to 6upply the wants of those who can ■"■ a fiord to pay the fairly —igh. rate, o. - wages prevailing. The •;«£. as we have, beforo pointed out. that numbers of. __ew.,Zica-»_d ",.-wlvot

mothers are over-worked in a way that no trades union would tolerateVith any of its members, and many of them become nervous wrecks in consequence. We believe that this state of things _a_ had a good deal more to do with the diminished birth-rate than is generally realised. One fact that is very well known and recognised, however, is that the worry consequent on the difficulty of getting efficient "help" has led many people to give up housekeeping altogether, and go into hotels and furnished lodgings. We thus see Ihe beginning in this colony of

a practice that in America has been destructive of home life in the highest and best sense of the term. But it also has a very direct bearing on the "amount of employment available for "male workers in the Dominion. It is obvious that if a married couple go into lodgings they give less employment to tho building trade, they consume less coal, and in many oth-jr ways give less employment to labour than would be the case if they set up houso for themselves. We have shown, moreover,\hat the scarcity of female labour in tho factories tends to lessen the number of male workers who can be employed. In the interest of the workers in every trade, we believe that the Government would be amply justified in a liberal and.at the same time judicious system of assisting capable women operatives and domestic servants to come out to New Zealand from the overcrowded markets of the Old World.