The Press. TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1909. DOMESTIC SERVANTS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13332, 26 January 1909, Page 6

The Press. TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1909. DOMESTIC SERVANTS.

I. is to be hoped that.when the Government come to considor the suggestion of the Canterbury Sheep-owners.' Union regarding tho importation of female domestic servants, they will have a better appreciation of the necessities of the situation than Mr Fow__s showed yesterday in his reply to the deputation from the union. __o proWon! presses urgently for solution. Mr 1) D. Macfarlane did not overstate tbe position when he declared tbat many women in tho country are enduring a condition of white slavery, and ruining their health, iv consequence of the -cxurcity of domestic help. Wcaltby people are loss affected, of course, than others; it is upon the women of tne class who can afford to keep only one servant, and who have families to look after, tliat the burden falls, most heavily, and wo havo no doubt that the decrease in the birth-rate may bo traced, to some extent, to the fear that women feel of undertaking any increaso in their domestic responsibilities it- tho present state of affairs. Thero are many homes in New Zealand to-day in which tho mother i_ slowly being worked to death because of tho impossibility of securing adequate domestic help. The need is so great that the question of cost hardly enters into the matter at all; for a reliable servant many household* would pay almost any wages tbat were asked. But tho change in social conditions due to the rapid increase in wealth of tho community, and the spread of _ao idea thart domestic service is degrading, have apparently turned the attention of young women who want to earn their own living into other channels; they prefer the factory, the shop, tho school, the office, to the kitchen. Yet tlie conditions of domestic service wore nover easior, nor its wages higher. A really good general servant can have almost all tho leisure and liberty that she wants in tie ovenings and on holiday.; in many homes she is allowed a, fortnight's holiday every year on full wages, and she can demand, and reoeive, from £30 to £45 a

I year, and possibly more, apart from her board and lodging. When the offer of th_>e wages and conditions of labour fails to bring the mistress of a house the service that she requires, it must be recognised, that the desired labour is not in the country, and recourse _n__t be had to assisted immigration. This is not a matter wbioh private persons can undertake on the scale that the circumstances demand, and the suggestion of the Sheepowners* Union that the Government; should send an agent Homo to select suitable girls from the country districts, the employers advancing the passage money if assurod of getting the right class, of labour, is ono whicn the Government, in ou_ opinion, should adopt without delay. Mr Fowlds's objection to the scheme, that it would cast upon the Government tho liability of providing employment for the domestic servants who were secured, would bo laughable if it did not so plainly show how little ho realises tho situation. Given young women of tho right class, girls oi good character, capablo in their duties, and not afraid of work, and tho country would absorb two or three thousand of them without the least difficulty, and without depriving of her position a singlo girl already in service and earning her wages. It would certainly bo well to work through an organisation such as the British "Women's Emigration Association, whose acceptance of emigrants would be some guarantee of their fitness, out even so it would be necessary to send Home an agont, to lot possible emigrants know of tho opportunities awaiting them in New Zealand. Mr Fowlds has promised to confer with the Minister for Labour on th© matter, bnt the question is one for the Ministry as a whole. The welfare of the mothers of New Zealand is involved iv it, and we should have been better pleased if Mr Fowlds, instead of apparently seeking for trivial objections to the proposal that the Government should take dofinite action, had promised the scheme his active support. His attitude, however, is characteristic of a Ministry that has never seemed to know its own mind about assisted immigration, but has backed and filled with every, breath of public opinion.