DOMESTIC HELPERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20594, 19 June 1930, Page 14

DOMESTIC HELPERS.

NEEDS OF FARMERS' WIVES.

VALUE OF ENGLISH GIRLS.

DISCUSSION BY WOMEN.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON. Wednesday.

Tlio dearth of domestic help in country districts was raised at the meeting of the women's division of tlio Farmers' Union Conference to-day, when a letter from the Overseas League, asking the division to cooperate in the sending of farm girls to the Dominion by the league, was discussed. Tho opinion that the average English girl was younger for her years than the New Zealand girl, who led a much moro independent hfo, was also stated. It was urged that farmers' wives who employed English girls should try to guide them and take a personal interest in them. Mrs. Wilson told of a tremendous lack of girls for domestic work in her district. Farmers could not afford to pay the wngo that girls could demand and get in tho towns. If tho English girls did not ask high wages they could bo placed.

Girls who came from tho industrial centres and the factories in England were not the right typo for New Zealand, said Mrs. McCorkindale. Sho quoted a recent English visitor to the Dominion, who was investigating conditions of domestic employment for English girls. She had felt after somo time in this country that to be a success tho girls must have had at least a year in a high school, besides farm training, because in the majority of Now Zealand country homes tho girls became one of the family. Miss Poison said sho felt that the 10 or 11 weeks of training given by the league before tho girls came out was absurdly short. it was pointed out that it was not that New Zealand girls could not do tlio work, but that they did not want to do it.

A motion proposed by Miss Carter, that tho division co-operate with tho Government in placing girls sent by tho league to act as "big sister" to them, was carried.