DOMESTIC PROBLEM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22822, 1 September 1937, Page 18

DOMESTIC PROBLEM

SUGGESTION IN ENGLAND TRAINING AND STATUS i [from a special correspondent] LONDON. Ausrust 14 A way of-solving the domestic problem is suggested by Mr. Ernest Schofield, who ; is organising a Domestic Servants' Exhibition in London. Ho .wants to give servants an eight-hour day, pay them £3 or £4 a week, and raise them .to the social status of nurses. , .' "I am convinced," he said this week, "that if domestics wero trained in schools they would be able to do most jobs about the house in half tho time. My idea is that one efficient girl would bo able to get through a whole day's work in a morning and would be able to work * somewhere else in the afternoon. She could cook a dinner in one house, clean rooms in another, and look after a baby in yet another. "Housewives would no longer be troubled by,l:he domestic problem. They ! would get almost as good service for money and the servants would benefit. Not that they should be called servants. Girls dislike the name because they think it is undignified. Why should not they bo called 'home tenders'? "At present girls are paid about 4|d an hour. If this new idea was successful they should earn far more than that —anything up to £4 a week," said Mr. Scho/ield. "And why should the daughters of professional men not take up.the calling? After all, keeping a house ii* order is one of the most honourable of all jobs."