DOMESTIC SERVANTS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 471, 1 April 1909, Page 3

DOMESTIC SERVANTS.

THE IMMIGRATION SCHEME. At. the request of the Mayoress of Christchurch (says our Dunedin correspondent) a meeting was held at Dunedin yesterday, at which it wa-s decided to agree with the Christchurch petition in regard to domestic servant immigrants, with this difference: that the Government should be asked to go in for a scheme of assisted, instead of free, immigration. Mrs. G. M'Lean said that the response to the Christchurch movement had been so good that the mayoresses in other parts were being asked to set similar movements' going, and it would bo pitiful if Dunedin did not help. She did not, however, believe in free immigration; that encouraged pauperism. We wanted a highly respectable class of immigrants, and if "the Government paid half the passage money, tho scheme would work as admirably as in the old days. _ Another lady speaker said that the relation between mistress and servant was the most delicato part of the problem. Why could we not got a finishing school for those who were now going into the factories—a school whero not only those going into service could bo trained, but also those who would bo called cn beforo long to manage their own homes? The Mayoress, Mrs. Hislop, is calling a meeting of ladies to discuss tho Christchurch petition with regard to tho scheme for bringing domestic servants to New Zealand. The meeting will bo callcd by advertisement in Saturday's papers.