NOTES AND CRITICISMS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XL, Issue XL, 18 October 1912, Page 4

NOTES AND CRITICISMS.

(By "Lux.") The Defence Act. It is proposed to amend the Defence Act in the direction of allowing country Territorials to put in four full days in camp immediately prior to the annual training camp. These four days are extra to the ordinary time in camp, and will not be paid for, but will take the place of the twenty week-night parades at present in vogue. Thtse twenty parades take up a good deal of time, and entail a good deal of labour and inconvenience to the country Territorial, while the benefit derived ia altogether disproportionate. The substitution of four extra days in camp will be infinitely better for the men and better value for the country. Both employers and employees should welcome the change. The Domestic Problem. Under this head the Otago Daily Times diacusues the scarcity of domestic servarts. It cannot be said, however, that the causes thereof are correctly pointpd out. Tha Times says, inter alia: "It is idle to suggest that the conditions of their employment explain trie shortage of domestic workers. Domestic servants cannot be secured for the great majority of homes, simply because the number of them is inadequate to go round." Everybody knows that this is the reason they cannot be got, but what most people want to know is why the supply is inadequate. I venture to say that one reason is that the average girl who has to earn her living prefers the more independent life in a factory where the hours are also shorter, to the drudgery and long hours of domestic service. Another reason for the shortage lies in tho prosperity of the country. Daughters of farmers and artisans do not now go 1o domestic service as they did years ago, simply because there is no necessity for them io earn their own living. The Times proposes to alleviate the position by the wholesale importation from Home of girls suitable not only for domestic work but for work in factories also. Factories are complaining of the scarcity of girl labor. "It is reasonable to assume," says the Times, " that an easing of the demand for factory labour would increase the supply of girls who might accept domestic employment." It is interesting to note that at Home, where we propose to import from, the domestic servant problem is quite as acute as it is here.

Any domestic servants arriving by Home boats are eagerly snapped up; many are arranged for by aid of wireless before they have even sighted New Zealand. Here let me record a protest against engagement by wireless, as it practically gives wealthy people a monopoly of the servants arriving, and is therefore opposed to the spirit of equality, which, I understand, is being fostered in New Zealand.

The Times also suggests that the effects of this dearth of domestic workers is " conductive to results anything but healthy from a national point of view," which I take to mean that it tends to a,further limitation of families.