THE DOMESTIC SERVANT PROBLEM.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13359, 26 February 1909, Page 3

THE DOMESTIC SERVANT PROBLEM.

PnOPO-SKD FREE IMMIGRATION. PETITION TO PARLIAMENT. A meeting of ladies was hold in the Y.W.C.A. l!<fliiis yesterday aiternooii. for the ptirpo-e o; considering a proposal to petition Parliament t'> restore the- oid systum of fre«- immigration of domet>!;<- servants from Eγgland. There was a very large attendance of la dies. and Mrs Cracro:i-\Vils':n preside!. Several s-.p...10gi0s tor absence were received, the writers expressing approval of the proposal to urge the Government to e-t:ibli-h a tree immigration system from England tor domestic servants.

Mrs C'racroft-'Wilson. in opening tho meeting. s«id that the idea was to petition Parliament to restore the free passage system for women domestics. The whole success of the M-henie would depend upon the way it was carried out by tho Government. Girls from Scotland and some parts of Ireland were considered to be the most suitable for sending out. while the Scandinavian girls had been recommended by the Hon. George Kowlds, but objection had been taken to the importation of any but English girls. An important reason why the Government should give free passages to single women was that the girls would be under more authorised supervision. They would have a special part of the ship arranged for them, as in the early days, and would have one or more matrons to take charge of them on the voyage, and also on their arrival. Mr Fowlds had said in answer to a deputation from the Sheepow Tier--' Union th-it ho feare-.l tho liability to be incurred in finding employment tor tho domestic helns asoon as they landed, but she did not think that" diilicultv would last very long. She bad been told by captain's of ships that, they received letters on getting to Hobart to engage suitable people who were coming out as passengers, to the great embarrassment o| the captains sometimes, and on other j ships the passengers engaged servants who were on their way to New Zealand before tlvy lanilt'l. Kvervtllin" depended on th,. class of girl .selected. At a moot ing of the Farmers' ("nion recently sic- notio-rcl that Mr "Evans had s.-iid that the assisted immigrants he had anything to do with wore most desirable, and that the undesirables, wore those ivbo came liero un-

assisted. He lia-l. not found a man assisted by the Governnie-iit- who was not suitable for farm work. She thought that was some assurance that tho Government would not !>rin2 girl.-; here who were not- fitted for the work, and that the Government would take care to have- the gjHs well looked after on arrival here. That there were number of girls in England willing to como to- Now Zealand several ladies present at the mooting -would testify. Those girls wore not in a position to pay part of t:ho passage money, and the present arrangement wa.s that tho Government would pay £10 it tho other £10 wns paid by tho imnv'JTa nt or tin* employer. The chief sufferers, however, were those who could not- afford to. pay part of tho passage money to bring out a girl. » . Mrs Cracroft-Wnson then read a letter received from Mrs Shepherd, who took a prominent part in tho f(-mnlo franchise petition, in which tho writer expressed her sympathy with tho proposal to secure tho immigration of domestic servants from England. Sho thought, however, that inst-cad of a free immigration scheme, an assist-ed immigration .scheme- whereby tho immigrant would pay at least one-half of the passage money would be much more likely to catch tho ear of Parliament, and would meet objections that had boon made-. Some carefully thought out scheme might be adopted. , which would b,» of mutual advantage to Groat Brit-

am and Xew Zealand. In Great Britain there seemed to be. a difficulty in obtaining employment for domestics, whereas in the Dominion thoro was a dearth of them.

Mrs Hawdon moved the following motion :—'"That, in the opinion of this mooting, tho women of Xew Zealand should petition Parliament to restore, a'u any rate for some time. State free immigration of sing'.o women suitable for domestic service. Mrs Hawdun said that she felt quite sure that tho Government would give the subject full consideration if a really representative

petition was sent in from a largo number of all classes of women voters, such a petition- as would put clearly before the Govornmont the urgency of tho need. The- scheme, if it was to bo

carried oat. would require much energy and public spirit on the part of tho women, for the time was short before Parliament assembled Mrs Hawdon dwelt at some length on th.- difficulties causrd at rre-ent by xho lack of do-n-..-.st:c h'hi. and sa:«l That the ehict sufferer, were tin- women who icjild only afford t>u> w ;iLie.> of erne -servant, and cT.i'.d not get her because the Mipply u.i-.id not t,ho demand. Wiiit'ii'-: true that much <>l the restriction <n ihe birth-rat-e amount ro-povt-aJ>l" p-"> !e was the o-uK-ome of that .scarcity of help? Wren.' r.s t!i:»t w:.s. who could wonder at th.- fxnw* nia*i-e for it'r If only a woman had (ewer children " or on.- g.-od servant, 1-ow different she might think, hi. r life be, and how iti'.irh better a mother and wife she woal-J nuike. No business man would Attempt any undertaking: comparable with that of a pmr h'ni..,-w ife's in New /.-aland. He would say that the iivsuftu-ient lnljour Ripply ma<lo it imi-v-ible to work the busiiie-s pro-p.-r!v. >:tc thoupht that a Jir-cdless lm-b-ar was mads' of the Labour Party's opi«->sit ion. for could not the innnSri-s of that jiarty also be convinced of the of the wonn>n [o! New Zealand if the cry was loud

Tin- motion was seconded l.v Miss Col-bonie-Voel. who -aid she thoroughly agreed ivitli the views of"" 'ihf.« previous speaker. T.ie School of Domestic .Instruction was giving instruction to the girls in the uiipor standards, but of the girls trained v.-ry tew wont into domestic service, and those were not always the brightest. The others went into factories iiml shops. There , were, numbers of girls in England who were going into undesirable trades in their anxiety to keep themselves in an honourable and r<isf>oct«bV position, while in New Zealand there were not girls enough to go round. She thought the proposal outline.l by Mrs Hawdon was just the l;im! of thins wanted to supply the girls required here, for they oo'uld bo'drawn from those who would otherwise drift into undesirable trades. Those girls would bo just the ones who would pome if means were pro'•ur.il to bring them to New Zealand iinuer proper conditions. There should bo somebody to look after the rj;irls on i !h<< voyage. «>nd a trustworthy crj gaiiisation at this end' to receive them and distribute them when they arrived. That now. however, -would luivo to be done by the Government,, for it v-as too 1-irgo an undertaking for private enterprise. .She felt sure that the Government who 'had tlvo interests of the people et heart-, would not be likolv to 'So back on the -women of Now /•-abiiid if the petition were presented. Miss Watorston. secretary of tho Chri.stehuroh branch of the YAV.C.A. also spoke on the. necessity of proper j-iipervi-sion of tho frills, -especially on the voyage. Two or three girls she >ni.", had "come under her notice. They Kirn« out as assisted) immigrants, of which there were GOO on board of all ages an<l sexes mixed. Th-ero was a matron attached to one party of girls s-ont. She was inofct unsuitable, and lit the girls go their own w<iy while she lwid a good time herself. Some of the girl.s also who had comt> out lnd been -woefully disappointed on arriving in New Zealanu, and l under the proposed scheme . tho selecting a pouts should be siiro to give- the girls a i isdit imprecision of the conditions hero. Tiiev should tell the girls that- aJ though they -wore- going to got higher wage.s. tlwit the prices for millinery. etc., would also be- higher, and they should -adiviso the girls not to como imU«s they had a little; money to bring with them, for -when a girl came so far away from home she had nothing' to fall back on in case of sickness. <md tho Government; could- not always bo responsible for her after the firs'tfew weeks of her arrival. It would havo to bo imuW> clear also that the fvoo immigration, avas intended for domestic servants only. otherwise a moat tinsuitablo class of girl might lie brought out. Above all things, the English factory girl, who -was something qnito different to the New Zealand factory girl, should' not be encouraged to come. Thoro was. in fact, no class of girl in N-ow Zealand liko the English factory girl and the- immigration of the latter -wonl<l , moan the introduction of a most dangerous element into New Zealand 1 . Th© girls also should be. mado clearly to -understand that they were not coming out as lady helps or housekeepers, but as domestic servants. A lady present stated that from her ©.vp-erience in 1/ondon, a very good cla. c s of girls could ho obtained far service in New Zealand. iMrs Carrington said that care would have to be taken to exclude tho undesirable claws of English factory gi'l. She suggested that the girls should bo

allowed , to havo their evening lre<>, lor there siho-uUI be a certain amount ot sell-denial on the part ot tho mi.str(;>jos. bho thought it thai wca> madi* a rule, and niadt , known, a gival many more girlri "would be tound oncrina; for service. .Vladamo Bernstein, speaking of AVpitcrn Australia, said that a i'ree immigration system adopted there li td proved si. jsuecees, and she- lelt sure sucli ii scheme would prove equally succvm>t'ul here. .Mrs Wood said that ii girls could !w induced to go into domestic service, they would do so -withonx the necessity' of importing girLs for tho pur]>ose, but (she was afraid that if girls wero brought out they would only drift into factories and shops as they did now Another lady replied that even ho there would be so many more- girls in the country, and that would relieve the pressure, .somewhat, even if some did jio into factories. As it was, there were a number of girls who would not iro into shops or factories, but preferr.-d domestic service. Mra "Wood' said that the Girls' Friendly Society's experience, had been that tho girls brought from the country districts did not like the comit'-y districts here, and got back to the town and drifted into shops. Mrs Hawdon pointed out that if the towns were supplied with imported girls, thoro would not be tho same demand for girls from the country, and they would naturally remain and enter jnto .service there. Mrs Talbot said tho need for girls was much greater in the country than in the towns. She thought the cau.se was that the town factories had 1 been made so pleasant to work in, that the girls flooded there from the country. There were still a number of girls> whose parents were sensible enough t.o see that it would toe a far better training for them to work in a home rather than in a factory. Tho girls should bo encouraged to follow the domestic vocation, and, if anything, dignity should be added to that vocation. Sho would therefore strongly op<pose any proposal to rediuce the rate of wages, for such a decrease would reduce tho status of the- girls as a class, whereas as much as possible should Tx> done to mis.n that status. The more she considered the matter the more, she felt Iho necessity of bringing girls out from England if the right class could be obtained. If the North of Ireland and Scotch girls could bo go f , tihey would bo an honour to the service and would not in any way hurt the feeling of the present helpers. She would support tho petition, provided til:<» proper girls were brought out. In roply to a question, Miss Harrington said that at t<he present time general servants wore in great demand, especially for the country. Mrs Cracroft Wilson said she thought the feeling of the meeting was that it did not wish in any way to reduce wages. The attraction to girls in coming out 'here was tihat wages were high. In reply to a question, Mrs Cracroft Wilson said that the selection of tho girls would be left in the hands of the Government, who would employ suitable agents, preferably women who had been in New Zealand and who know the roouiromonts he-re. The motion was then put and carried by oS votes to 1. Mrs Cracroft Wilson said it would be necessary to set up a committee to bring* the matter before the ladies in other parts of New Zealand, for the petition would be of little value unless it came from the women of tho Dominion generally. The following were elected members of the committee: —Meedamos Cracroft Wilson. Croxton. W. Wood, HurstL. Clark (hon. secretary). Pratt (lion, treasurer) and Dr. Jessie Maddison.