DOMESTIC PROBLEM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 21, 25 July 1910, Page 3

DOMESTIC PROBLEM.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — I am accused of all sorts of dreadful things because I said "that the introduction of domestic servants would not help the mothers of the working class." lam told that this is "the very narrowest and blindest spirit of class selfishness." My wickedness must be very great indeed for I do not feel inclined to take back one jot or tittle of what I ha\ c said. I know perfectly well that there are people who treat their servants humanely and kindly, and anything I say of others does not apply to these people. This 1 acknowledge treely, but, on the other hand, there are people having servants under their control whom I would not trust to have charge of a dog, let alone a human being. Take a case like this. A young woman of 25 years of age served with a well-to-do family. The children took measles, and the servant did her usual work and also nursed the children through their illness. She takes the measles hersell, and drops in a faint at her work. Her mistress conies on the scene and delivers lhi<i admonition : — "She did not believe in fainting, and if she had seen her she would ha\e thrown a bucket of water over her." Then the servant was told, "go home or to the hospital as she couldn't stay there." There are many cases of such curt, brutal treatment as this occurring, and working women in service have to put up with taunts, .c- i buffs, and insults which men would not ] put up with for an instant. lam a man of the working class and discuss in a practical way such matters' with my sisters of the working class, and for their sake I say openly that I fear any movement which, however well intended, may result in flooding the market of domestic service. Before the Stale steps in to increase the suppiy of domestic servants, I hold that we have the duty to perform of raising the standard of the service, and the status of those who are engaged in" it. I have every respect for the ladies who waited on Sir Joseph Ward (the Prime Minister), and I believe their intentions were entirely good. 1 yet want these ladies to consider that tlfere may be other aspcts of the question that they may not have investigated. I would like them first of all to recognise that all service or work has its economic value, and sweating conditions are if anything less justifiable when applied to women and girls than when applied to men. I wish them also to realise that according to the conventional standards of the market and society it is held to be just to take a woman's time and service for 'far less than will be offered to a man even when such services are of the same value to the employer. The fact of these inequitable and unjust conditions being in existence should surely make us 'pause and fully review the situation when we find a demand being made to increase the supply of women workers in a department of service where women and girls are at present least protected. There has been some talk of paying girls 8s or 10s per week. Do those who mention these rates clearly understand what it means? These questions are proper and relevant. What work will these servants (you may call them helps, assistants, companions, or anything you please) be required to do? What hours will they be on duty? What is the present value of such work"? At tho present time we find many servants being employed for seventy hours a week and over. At 10s per week this means a payment of about one penny three farthings an hour, which I consider to be an outrageous sweating wage. Suppose young girls are brought at the expense of the general taxpayers, and start at 8s or 10s per week, is it not likely that they will soon enter into competition with colonial girls who may be getting 14s to 16s per week, with the result that they will undersell the colonial girls in the labour market? The suggestion, I know, is made that these young immigrants should be made ''wards of the State." The term "wards of the State" has a pleasing sound, but as it seems to mean that these young persons should be brought out to work at certain rates arranged for them and be kept by the State at such employment, the average colonial man or woman will not be able to distinguish between this plan and that of "indentured and bond labour," an idea which the average person revolts against. 1 agree that there are some instances where women who are in poor health must suffer hardships if they cannot get domestic help in some way. 1 know many women of the working class, who, unfortunately, have simply to go on and suffer, for even if a servant's wage was only 3s per week the scanty family earnings will not allow of such payment. I should like to see these mothers relieved in some way which would not entail casting the burden on other women or girls who, themselves, may some time become mothers if their health remains. The mothers amongst the working class are in the main those who have to rear families on an income of less than £3 per week ; indeed, in numerous instances less than £2 per week taking the whole year round, and I hold that unless there was a complete flooding of the market of domestic service, these are not the people who would get domestic help, for the very substantial reason that they cannot pay for it. There is no need to talk sentiment on this subject any more than on any other labour question. Whilst some employers will treat their "help" on other and more humane principles than the rules of the market, yet it were utter folly to ignore the* existence and potency of these rules. The chief rule means that an' increase in supply spells reduction in price, and it matters nothing how you change the mode of supplying. Thinking over this problem, and I have thought a good deal on this -question of the supply of domestics, I cannot bee that on the grounds of humanity there is any other solution than that of altering and raising the standard of the service and improving the status of those employed in it. Even if Sir Joseph Ward's idea of free p-iss-Hges for domestics is put in loroo. thc?e immigrants will not stay in such service when hotter occupations are open to them. Wilh a legalised 43 hours' working week in factories no sensible girl can be expected to take kindly to 70 hours of household drudgery. . At present what we see in front of us is that some employers of domestic help have more servants than they require and what is really good for them (for we have to take into consideration that some of the help is employed rather from motives of custom and fashion rather than real need) ; whilst other people cannot get the holp they most &urely need. To be very plain, some of our present modes or methods of domestic life are false and artificial. With simpler and more natural modes of living, domestic help would be called for only on tho ground of actual need and not for reasons of whim and fancy and the pride of appearances. An attempt should be made by ladies and others to bring about this requiied change in the best interests of both womanhood and motherhood. A limiting of the endless round of meals, meals, meats — hot suppers and late hours — would set free a good deal of domestic" help that at present is not, properly speaking, being used but simply wasted. I take back nothing of what I have previously said on this vexed question. Whilst fully respecting the opinions of other people I do not think the solution is to l>e found in the introduction of more immigrants, i am of thu opinion that the real solution lies in the direction of :— (1) Altering the methods and raising the btandard of domestic service. (2) Ihe elimination, of wasteful con- ,

sumption of unnecessary domestic help. (3) The proper training of those who enter and remain in such service. (4) The raising of the status of those employed by shortening excessively long hours of employment ; granting fairer terms of remuneration and generally bet-ter-living conditions. — I am, etc., D. M'LAREN. I Wellington, 19lh July, 1910. TO THE EDITOR. j Sir, — The solution of the above problem will be found in the following : — "Help* ourselves and each other." Therein lies the pleasure aiid the nobility of life. "In all labour there is profit, but the folding of the hands leade-th only to penury." The woman who neglects her children and her home is as unworthy as the man who idles around a public-house. A healthy woman can look after her home just as her husband can do his work. 111-health comes from dissipation, and in the rasa of women from high-heeled boots and tight corseks. No man could do his daily work and wear a corset. We must leaiui to live, dress, and amuse ourselves simply. We must help ourselves when we are healthy and well, and help each other when we are sick. We cannot live independently of each other and pay in coin for every service. Let those who want servants have them by all mea-its, but let them pay the bill. Working people can never have, and do not want, their work done for them ; neither do they want charity in any shape or form. All they ask is the result of their labour, and they will pay their way and do their duty. — I am, etc., NEW ZEALANDER. Wellington, 16th July, 1910. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — I think the members of the deputation who waited upon the Premier to urge the Government's assistance in importing domestic help for tired mothers, aie at least entitled to the compliment of being well-intentioned. That many women aTe in need of vach help we all admit; but can any relief be given in the way suggested? It is conceded that the Government is not. being asked to use tlie public funds for the benefit of the well-to-do society ladies, but unless it is to be indentured labour, these are the ones who will benefit. The women who are suffering from lack of help are those with small incomes who can only afford to paj "wages of eight to ten shillings per week, and these women only require assistance because they themse/ves are not strong, or, because they have a large family of ' small children, or, becaube they have sickness in the home, or a multiple of all three. Such homes are not attractive oo girls, and I ask ar_e they likely to fctay in such places when they find they can get into homes where tlie sunoundings are le^s depressing, the work more routine, and the wages anything from twenty shillings peT week, and as much more as the prevailing conditions may make necessary? Will some of the advocates of importation kindly explain how the girls are to be retained by the "poor overworked mothers" who are in real need of their services? — I am, etc. , L.A.F. Wellington, 18th July, 1910. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — I cannot refrain from adduig to the many letters re this "Domestic Help Problem" in opposition to the ridiculous proposal. As the "Mother of Four" and others have stated how few (if any) of the working class could pay 8s or 10s weekly, feed, and lodge a so-called help from a husband's wage, after paying rent 18s or £1 tradespeople and possibly casual labour only to depend upon ? Many labourers lose three, even four, days out of each week through wet weather, which means reducing the weekly wage to all but starvation. Do not working men, and, I may add, tradesmen also, find the high rents the principal drain upon their weekly earnings. When rent and tradesmen, coal, 'and light are paid how much is left for clothes and the help? What a miserable existence many mothers experience trying to help to provide food for their own family without adding one more to the number. Sir, the problem would soon be solved if house rents were reduced to suit the working men. If the doctors and these ladies were to interest themselves on this important question of reducing rents they would soon see the result. Mothers could stay at home to mind their little family instead of wash ing, scrubbing, and cleaning to help pay a money-grabbing landlord. Anyhow a charwoman would suit the -workers' home rather than a help, who would possibly look upon the little children as a nuisance. The. rent is the true cause of worry and anxiety to every worker's wife (Ji'eading the collector . or landlord coming to take the biggest part of the wages so hardly earned. I think many will join with me as a mother in saying we want no imported girls to come here and marry our sons. New Zealand girls arc for our boys not imported from nobody knows where. The recent arrivals have surely given us proof enough of the class that arc sent out to our country. Ladies and doctors, make a step in the direction we workers' wives all want : reduction in rentl. — I am, etc., WOMAN. 18th July, 1910. TO THE EDITOH. Sir, — After studying the doings and sayings of the deputation of good people which waited, on the Premier in regard to the domestic servant problem, and the Premier's reply thereto ; also tho correspondence which the subject has provoked, wo can only come to the conclusion that little good can result from the usual methodf oj immigration, in face of the conditions which prevail in this country. If a number of girls should be imported, we all know that the most of them would very soon be so influenced by the independent spirit which exists among" the great majority of women here, that domestic service would •not hold them. It has been suggested by some of the correspondents that the status of the domestic workers should be raised, that they should be trained and certificated, and organised as nurses havo been of recent years. Such a scheme, though no doubt good in itself, would defeat its own object, because, once the work is raised to Die status of a profession, the workers would naturally consider themselves of too much consequence to do the ordinary housework of homes of from £2 to £5 per week, about which the deputation had so much to say. The nursing profession is an object lesson in this respect. Some years ago it was comparatively easy to get a nurse to undertake the housework of a workingclass home, in addition to her professional duties, but now tho nurse requires a servant in the house. Will it be too much to suggest to the lady doctois and others who have been so prominent in this agitation that they possess their souls in patience for a few more years, until the forces at work in our midst have done their work a little more effectively. Then other methods of getting over the difficulty will come to light. Observers cannot help seeing that home life, as we have known it, is going out of fashion ; the fact that the rising generation of women is so strongly averse to housework is the first proof of it. Then we have the everincreasing number of private hotels and large boardinghouses, also the tendency to camp and out-of-door life, summer camps, and Easter camps, holiday civilian camps, and Volunteer camps, school cadet camps and Sunday School camps, Bible Class camps, V.M.C.A., and Boys' ( Institute camps, Girl Scouts and Boy-

Scouts, and now we are told we are going to have big compulsory military training camps, where a proportion of our youth will always be under canvas. The whole trend of the times is in the direction of giving the young people of both sexes a distaste for home life, and an impatience with its restraints and confinement. No matter how much many of us may deplore it, the methods adopted to ease the situation in the comparatively near future will be municipal or co-operative homes, municipal kitchens, dining-rooms and laundries, and State nurseries for the babies. — I am, etc., OBSERVANT WORKER. Brooklyn, 19th July, 1910. i TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — We are hearing a great deal about the servant problem, the birthrate, the good old-fashioned mothers of the past generation, and the pleasureloving mothers of this generation. I know some mothers of the past generation. They were domestic servants in England. They were excellent servants. They were meek and clean and hardworking, and humble-minded. They were not very intelligent, because they had no time to improve their minds. Our domestic workers are intelligent. Hence the servant problem. These 'good old-fashioned servants came to New Zealand and became good oldfashioned mothers. They li\fd laborious Uves. They worked up to the last moment at those periods when nature demanded that they should . rest. The nervous energy that ought to have been stored up for the unborn child they expended on work which has now to a great extent been specialised and removed from the home. The children of these women are not servants. They work in factories. They are slight, delicate, lacking in nervous force. But it was not the well-ventilated Govem-.nent-inspected factory that made them so. It was the mei^iods of the good old-fashioned mathert". Our children are robbed of their birthright. All intelligent people know something about pre-natal influence. And intelligent people know that all women are not equal in strength and nervous energy. Perhaps some women with an abundance of both these requisites do not need rest at that particular time, but there is good reason to believe that the majority do. - By the .interest the doctors have taken in the deputation there can be no doubt as to their opinion. But' to bring girls out from England will not remedy matters. The great majority of the mothers of New Zealand cannot afford to employ an assistant ; and there is no house-ioom for an assistant in. the average worker's home. We must get right at the root of the trouble if we wish to help those who have the greatest claim — the mothers of, the race. Take an ordinary case : Mrs. A is expecting an addition te her family. After breakfast is over and the little ones have gone to school she looks longingly out at the sunshine. How pleasant it would be to take a book and to go and sit in the health-giving, invigorating rays. But no; there are breakfast dishes to be washed, the sweeping, cooking, washing, the dusting of the multitudinous bric-a-brac that the average woman considers necessary to her happiness; there is a tunic to be made for little Tommy and some pinafores for Katie, and clothes for the coming baby ; and with a weary sigh she steels herself to her tasks. We ask her why she makes tunics and other clothes herself instead of buying them from the shops. She answers that it comes a little cheaper to make them at home. Now we know that in an up-to-date factory labour is specialised and labour-saving appliances are used. Wo are certain that the making of these articles, which weighs so heavily upon this poor worried mother, can be made in a fraction of the time in a factory. But Mrs. A and thousands in the same position must drudge through long weary days and may not avail themselyes of the triumphs of man's ingenuity. Why not? Because some people demand profit out of the transaction. We call upon Mrs. A late in the afternoon. With aching back, white and tired-looking, the prospective mother is engaged in cakemaking. Wo know that cake oan be bought cheaply. We ask why she'does not buy it. She answers that she does not like to give her little ones bought stuff, because she does not know what rubbish is in it. She says she has known people engaged in that industry. She gives us some information. We suddenly take a dislike to cake. Mrs. A charitably makes excuses for the people she speaks of. "You know," she says, "they must make a profit." If we wish to help the mothers we must co-operate. We must abolish profit-mongering. As long as commodities are made for profit there will be the incentive to adulteration. And the conscientious mother will strive feebly to perform that labour which could be done far more cheaply and easily by co-opferation. One after another our industries have been removed from the fireside to the factory. Our women havo. followed the work. We cannot put a slop to industrial evolution. We must go with the tide. At present we are driven here and there on tho waves of human greed and stupidity. Not until production for profit ceases and all industries are managed by the State will the mothers and their precious charges be rescued from the mental atmosphere of hurry and Avorry that clouds all the brightness of life, and from which the mental, hospitals, inebriates' homes, and the gaols draw a rich harvest. — I am, etc., ELIZABETH GLOVER. Wellington, 20th July. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — A great deal has been said in your columns concerning the domestic service problem. I fear some of the mistresses have themselves to blame for their treatment towards their servants, and consequently have caused good girls to seek other employment where they have shortei hours, and more time for recreation. Another drawback is the accommodation at some places. For instance, one place at which I worked the condition of the kitchen was insanitary, but evidently the mistress thought it quite good enough for the servant ; but if she and some others could only see the clean and comfortable homes that some of us girls leave to go out to earn our own living, they would surely have more respect for us, and not make us feel that we are degrading o.j&elves by working for them, and if they would treat the New Zealand girls «"ilh a little more consideration, there would be no need to send to other countries for girls, who would very soon tire of the treatment of some of the mistresses here and would be glad to seek other employment. As for the working class (although we are all a working class in New Zealand), they would be quite content without domestic help if they got peAnanent work and had lower rent to pay. It would lighten the ' cares of a mother, too, and give her more encouragement to attend to the home and children without any outside help. — I ! am, etc., | DOMESTIC. j Wellington, 19lh July, 1910. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — Your leader in Friday's issue, jnder the heading oi "The Gospel oi" Humanity," is an example of special pleading in a bad cause. You evidently act on the old legal maxim of "No case, abuse the other side.'- You- sotja:

to forget that nine-tenths of the people do not, and 1 never will, be able to employ help. The mere fact of the medical men endorsing this move is nothing in its, favour. They, like yourself, np doubt, are employers of domestic help') and therefore interested. As for your appeal on behalf of those "unfortunate^ earning between £3 and £4 a week, I ran say for myself that I do not want assistance. All this talk about poo£ mothers being worked to death is th« sheerest nonsense. I know iof some who have an extremely hard time, but they are not of the class you wish to | assist. The income you mention they would consider affluence. 'It is not a ; question with them of finding someonjs to do the family washing or to cooK the succulent chop ; it is a more -serir ous problem of getting any decenj clothes to wear and of being able to get a bit of something tb'eat. So fair as it concerns the ' State, there is no domestic help problem. It is purely a matter for the individual concerned-; it is the old trouble of champagne tastes and beer incomes. — I am, etc., — LAISSBR-FAIRE. • j Wellington, 20th July. 1910. TO THE EDITOR. *■; Sir, — Regarding the domestic servant problem which is agitating ma-ny mothers at present, why. should we go to the trouble of importing v doniesfeics when there is a sufficient supply of tlie colonial article if they are only decently treated as regards wages and conditions of service? It stande to reason that the imported article will eventually drift into the factories and 'displace the local girls as well a-s the men.. .Take, for instance, the bootmaking and tailoring trades,' and what do we see there? The girls are. doing .the-.work formerly done by men., who "are thus driven on to the unskilled market,, adding to the unemployment in that branch of work. The worker is then obliged to send his daughter into tho factory to help keep the home going, whereas if ho were working his daughter could help the mother in the housework. Let' those who complain of the dearth of domes.tics look through the factories and see the numbers of girls employed to every man. About twenty to one are gir.ls. The conditions of the factories are no! fit for girls. If employed in domesti,-. service or helping their mothers they would •be healthier Avomen and make better wives and mothers. When entering factory life after leaving school at fourteen years of age or thereabouts, they are healthy and strong, but after a period of six or twelve months they have lost all the healthy colour of youth, and their moral condition must' suffer. Instead of arguing about importing do mestics, it would be better if a law was passed to prevent so many apprentices being employed. Thero would be a bigger demand for men, which would mean a larger supply of girls for domestic purposes. To maintain that a worker earning from' £2 to £3 can afford to keep a servant is- absolutely absurd. What with the. small wages and un : certainty of ■ employment he cannot make both ends meet as it is. It is clear that the Dominion would be assisting those who" are well able to import the girls for themselves if net found here. Tho girls are in .plenty here if decent conditions and wages are forth^ coming. It is merely a matter of importing cheap labour, which is already, cheap enough. I am, etc., ONE GOING THROUGH THE MILL, Wellington, 19th July, 1910. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — I am quite oonversant with both sicles of the problem, and would lika to give you an instance of how some self-styled ladies treat good help when they get it. They advei-tise for help and get some refined girl desirous of going out a few hours daily. They giv» the magnificent sum of 12& weekly for six half-days and expect washing and extra cleaning up, etc., for a family of five, not including extra visitors and relatives. Her hours are stipulated and woe betide her if she ia a little. late. No tram fares are allowed to go to the suburbs. It does not matter if the employer is an hour late with her time after being out playing cards or hunting all the shops for bargains. Th» help's duties are written out and underlined for her, and what is expected is outrageous in the time specified. Of course the mistress can do all that, and why not the help? If the help did her duties like some mistresses, the door would be shown piet.ty quickly. Sbe has also at the same time to take charge of baby and the- other ohildren, take them out, come back, feed them, and cook food, etc. Next thing, is "Oh, please lay the dinner table, I must b» dressed for my husband." Oh, what a. farce ! The day "at 'home" comes,and the children are to' betaken cha\ge'"of, kept quiet, etc. There is no question of tea and cake for the help, oh, no. Her head may be bursting for all they care. As regards tlie food, tea and bread and butter is quite sufficient for a help, witb a bit of stale cheese or cake put down, after a hard day's work. I think some of our medicos *oould tell us something about ifc if they chose. Why are there so many run-down aiid anaemic helps? Simply this eternal bread 'and bilker. Sometimes the children give the show away and then the help has come to her own conclusions. It is a pity some of the husbands could, not see tlie help's lunch-table occaaionally, it would be an eye-opener. They are better :w;d more considerate than their wives. Very often the help has tome of a good family, and has had to try domestic work through no fault of her own,, to earn a living. Those who have <• good helps should value them and be a little moie considerate for them, as they don't know their circumstances, only the suv. face of things. They sometimes forget. It is high time an association was* formed a* was mooted in the paper the <,t-l<«r day, then the fit aud tho lmfit. the employer and the employee f,. u ld be- be'^fited, and, like some moiv st>nou6- troiil>'»? they could be identified ,md Cil/ew^l V<J their mutual benefit-.— -I am, ot- '" "ONE OV THi* 'trV'V •»» Wellington, 20th July, J9JO. rf«n? h V^?°"A (W^i teß , a special dent of the Auckland Herald) "has i ee n the Maoris-and been a*ton4ed. Chici?°A %!T i ' econ - d . lar gest city in the United States, and it takn a lot to astonWfl Ar W - hen Chicagoans leaned' Uiat the Maoris, who were billed aa wiid savages from New Zealand— the most startling acl on the vaudeville stage, would not perform on Sundays, they were amazed. Pressure was brought* to bear on tho Maoris— who are nearing the end of an extensive tour of America' for theatrical purpose."*— but despite the most tempting overtures, they stood hri» and true to their promise— made atfllotorua prior te their departure from New Zealand— io the effect that they would not be available for Sunday performances. In Chicago, described as the godless city of the States, the musio halls andi most other places of amuser>i«it, remain open on Sundays, performances being billed for every aiternoon and evening of the week," so that th-e^ surprise of the inhabitants at the action of the Moris may be well imagined. The Maoris then proceeded to San Francisco, and, writing under date 17th June, the correspondent states that it is likely that tlte company will accept an attractive offer to tour Poulhem California. Prior to leaving for the Dominion on or about 6th August, the troupe will play a. Rugby football match against th* best t«arm San, l'x*nciscft-caa .eut J..ia-tb^j|sj6J ..ia-tb^j|sj6i l '- - sse *- > - "

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"UUBEROID" FOR THE SOUTH POLE.