DOMESTIC HELP

Evening Star, Issue 22723, 10 August 1937, Page 12

DOMESTIC HELP

MEETING THE SHORTAGE BASQUE fiIRLS SUWEBTED If Government approval can he obtained it is possible that an effort may be made to end the domestic shortage here by bringing to New Zealand a. large number of Basque girls. A movement is now afoot to bring abonfi 600 of these girls to Wellington, all of them being intended to act as domestics and to enter into an agreement that thev will give their services in that field and not seek to, compete with New Zealand women in any other, at all events for a term of years. Tho general domestic situation her* is almost at the stage where people who can afford to employ maids have ceased to try to obtain them. Advertising is no longer of any great assistance, and people prefer to obtain their domestics through friends who know of a girl willing to accept a position. >lh many instances advertisements go unanswered or bring forth letters which, instead of the employer examining the domestic, the girl cross-ques-tions the employer.: Domestics who will wear uniforms and wait at table are rapidly disappearing. It is difficult! to obtain girls for houses where ther* are children, and in the outlying suburbs unless a housewife can obtain S> local girl she_ goes-without. In these circumstances the suggestion that the breach should ’be nilea by Basque girls has been received with enthusiasm, tempered by the suspicion that a mass immigration of this kind' may not be welcomed by the Government. It is stated, however, that thj recent committee which investigated the causse of the abortion rate in New Zealand drew attention to the extreme shortage of domestic help and urged that the Government should take action to remedy the situation. It is also stated that Basques, because of their slight knowledge of the language, would be restricted to domestic work for a considerable time.