THE DOMESTIC SERVICE QUESTION.
"Surprised" writes :—"ln: — "In one of your last week's papers I read the question, Why do so many girls prefer to work in a factory at the small salary of 4s a week Avhen * girl with any common sense at all can earn from 9s to l&s a week doing domestic work? To begin with, the factory girl ihas every Sunday and a hulf-holiday a week, also every evening to herself, as against her more unfortunate sisters, who only have every other Sunday from dinner-time that th*y can depend -upon; very seldom, indeed, a weekly half-holiday, sometimes fortnightly, monthly, or none at all. As for evenings, sometimes you see in advertisements for girls (ns a catch) 'every ovening off.' Now, compare a servant's evening off with any other worker's. Wo p'6ol ' servant's find it very awkward when asked to join an assembly or class commencing at even 7.30 p.m. The first aiwwer generally is, Oh, that is rather eor.y tor me ; you see, dinner does not go in until 6 or 6.30 p.m., as the case may be, nnd what chance, then, is there for a girl to get away after washing and clearing up, say, for threo or four courses? Now, that is only one drawback in service. Apart from the very long hours a servant has on duty, I really think if people would only make things a little more tempting and duties a little lighter it would encourage girls to carry out the work more fitted for them. If daughters of tho house in every sphere in life were trained to do a certain amount of housework every day, however smHll, instead of dovoting «o much time to so many other useless attractions, such as ping-pong mornings and book afternoons, etc., "that, too, would help to encourage the maida to stay longer in their places than they seem to be doing nt present in Wellington. I say Wellington, because from my experience the generality of people here soem to be always changing their maids, which i* quite a novel idea to me, having lived several years in other principal towns of New Zealand where it is the usual thing for ladies to keep servants for year* together."
THE DOMESTIC SERVICE QUESTION.
Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 47, 23 August 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)
No known copyright (New Zealand)
To the best of the National Library of New Zealand’s knowledge, under New Zealand law, there is no copyright in this item in New Zealand.
You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the source.
For further information please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in