MISS RYE'S SCHEME. (FROM THE " MELBOURNE ARGUS.")

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIX, Issue 1955, 22 October 1863, Page 4

MISS RYE'S SCHEME. (FROM THE " MELBOURNE ARGUS.")

Tim ill-success of Miss Rye's attempt to equalise the proportions of the sexes in (Hugo, should be a warning to nil philnutiluopical ladies not to meddle With so delicate a subject unadvisedly. We are willing to q ive Miss Rye every ciedit for the excellence of her intentions, and for no little courage and perseverance in cariying out her difficult undertaking. We can have no doubt that she cnteied upon her mission in a sphifc of the purest benevolence ; and, her own letteis to the 'finite are sufficient evidence at least that she is not disposed to bin ink fioiu auy'of the responsibilities of her enterprise. At the same time it is clear that the people of Otago have not responded to Miss Rye's proposals in the manner which was expected of them. The cargo of governesses teumins a diug in the market. Whether there is not sufficient demand for domestic education in the Southern provinces of New Zealand, or whether the young ladies are 100 good, or not good enough, for their places, we ate not informed. It may be that the matrimonial chaiactcr of the investment was from the beginning too thinly disguised. Speculator weio pimibly afiaid to venture on any large ordeis for goods so equivocal. The cargo was, in fact, like some of our recent importations fiora China — crackeis and sugar-plums at the top, and opium at the bottom. The bills, so to speak, which weie drawn against the consignment, clearly betrayed that they covered something more valuable than ordinary fneworks. A. natural suspicion was cieatcd against this class of goods, when the oiiginnl letter of advice dwelt moio upon the lelations of the setts, and upon the population tables, than upon the demand for governesses and a better chins of female seivants. Theie can bo veiy little doubt that this double character which was given to the impoitalion by MiM Rye has been the piincipal cause of her failure. No one denies that there exists a large demand in the colonies for good fern.de servants, and even for gover nesses of the light soit. Thoie is, pel haps, no depaitmeut of labour jn which the colonies aie so deficient, and none which offers so ivide and remunerative a field of employment. Of all classes in Victoria, the household servants are, perhaps, the beat paid, in proportion to the value of their services. They suffer less by the fluctuations in tho rate of wages than any other class. They aio relatively in a better position than any other Libourerj. They cannot he said to know what it is to be without remuneiative work, even although their woik is tho rudest, tho least skilled, and the least laborious of any. For a housemaid of any pretensions, seivice m Melbourne is a lound of fashionable visits. For plain cooks there is no such paiadise as Melbourne aftbuls. The domestic soi vant with us is, in fact, the mistieus of the situation. Whatever disturbs the geneial cunont of piosperity, she at least is peifectly safe and^peifectly comfortable. Waives may rite or fall, piopoity may be in danger, and capital in giief, but the cook and the housemaid aio assured of their homes, then i3O or £40 aj ear, (heir daily din nets, their Sundays out. The quotations of the rates of labour in the rnaiket aie for them but a stereotyped form. For them, the veiacious chronicler has bub one rate of wages, let the demand be e\ er so dull, and the supply ever so plentiful. What class fares so vi ell in the whole community ' What labourers earn their hue so ea-sity ? Had Miss Rye proposed to supply us simply with good skilled domestic seivants, without any aiTiere pens/c of m.iti imony, she would have been assutcd o£ a heaity suppoit from the colonists. A ship-load of clean housemaids, of able cooks, would have been n national blessing. A few governesses, of the less amInlioussoit, might also have commanded a good maiket. But an indiscriminate caigo of young women, each provided with Miss Rye's pamphlet on the disproportion of sexes in Austiaha, and with her imagination filed with the noble prospect of lediessing that gieat evil, is a \enture of a more questionable kind. A very little acquaintance with colonial life would havo pievented Miss Rye fiom entering into so hazaidous n speculation. The cause of her failure lies on the surface. It is in the double character which hen adventure assumes, fiom the beginning. The immigrants a»e intended to be something else than mere servant?. They aic led to believe that their immediate and ostensible piofebsion of servant or governess, is but the initialoiy step to matt imony. They have been instilled with Mifrs Rye's ideas as to the deploiable evils resulting from tho dispropoi tionate number of women in the Australian colonies, and they come out inspired with a bin mug xoid against celibacy. Eveiy single master is in their eyes a possible husband, and the kitchen but a piobation for the pailour It is not in human n a tine to (>\|>2ct that the poor qiils, with such ideas in their minds, would be other than disappointed at the reception they met wi^li in Otago. Tluy came expecting to find the whole single male population suffei ing under a chwmic dejection, induced by the paucity of women ; and tlirv met only with a few inquiries fiom bteady housc-holdeis for -servants of all woik. They aie herded together in a Hide banack, with no other sooicty than that of the local constabulary ; and they are compelled to take their own couioe as to adjusting the relations of the sexes. If it is not in this manner that the colonies are to be bnpplied with good servants still more unlikely is it that it is by such means we aie to find our wivci. Theie is, of oomse, no leason why tho good femalo sorvaut should not have her matrimonial ambitions, like her betteis ; and theio is ho one piepaied to deny tho general proposition, that the moie the disproportion of the sexes is lemedied, the hotter it will be for tho colony. But the remedy must come natmally, and is not to lie fenced. Nothing but injmy and disappointment can lesult from any attempt, to bring out single women to the colony with such views as those which ha^ c been instilled into Miss Rye's immigrants. The veiy suspicion of the tiue chaiacter of any such consignment is enough to spoil the maiket in advance for the speculators. The disparity of sexe* in the Australian colonies is doubtless a great social cvil — an ovil extending far beyond the circle of those classes whose immediate interests Miss Rye has in view ; but the philanthropists in England who have been attracted by the forlorn condition of single young men in Australia, ought to know us better than to suppose that it is by tho direct expoitation of eligible young women for wives that our wiongs are to be redressed. Tho matter is by far too delicate a ono to be treated in this unroinantic and commercial way. The unmarried Australians are possibly no less pai ticular as to the choice of their wives than unman ied men in other paiti of the civilized world. The privilege of choosing for ourselves is one of those relics of refinement which we pretend to retain in this colony ; and we may bo trusted to know our own wants in this respeot peihaps oven better than those who send us out a, cargo of conivicts on one day and a cargo of wives on another, by way of promoting the interests of population.