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New Zealand Mail, Issue 691, 29 May 1885, Page 19

tt The Servant Girl Question ” is the title of a short article which appears m the last number of the Victorian magazine, “ Once a Month.” The writer, who announces himself as an emigration acrent with considerable Home experience, «ives several reasons for the dearth of properly trained domestic servants in England. He says:—“Foremost may be mentioned the new system of btate education,‘ by which girls who were originally intended for service have abandoned all idea of an occupation so menial after receiving a first-class education 1 at a Board school. The British tax-payer contributes his three pence, and even five pence, in|the pound towards the expense of educating the lower classes, and he pays for supporting Board Schools to which he could not send his own children, and one of the benefits he receives for this drain on his already overtaxed income is the impossibility of getting any decent servants to perform the household duties. In point of fact the upper and middle classes in'Great Britain are annually contributing to reduce or limit the field from which the ordinary domestic servant Is obtained. Another reason for the decreasing supply of domestics is found in the fact that high wages are earned at the -sewing machine, ; and in the fancy goods warehouse. The girls employed in this work, of course, opt greater freedom. They have their evenings to themselves, and they know exactly the number of hours they have •to work. There is no special ‘ Sunday out ’ with them, and no restrictions as to when they must be home at night.” As to the better wages alluded to by the writer we are very much inclined to believe that he is to some extent in error. There are, we suppose, special cases in which girls employed in fd, England at sewing machines and i n hhops earn more money than they would in service. But, as a rule, the .women of the sewing machines and shops have to labour for a very small return, whilst the wages of domestic servants have of late years gone up enormously in England —a fact which is admitted in another part of the article and is indeed given as one of the reasons for the difficulty experienced in inducing persons -of the class of trained domestic servants to emigrate. The greater «• freedom, and the ideas contracted with an education many degrees superior to what could be obtained a generation ago, are the main causes which keep girls out of service. The same causes are operating in every one of the Australasian Colonies at the present day ; and in Melbourne a society has been recently organised to work in conjunction with -the ’Women’s Emigration Society in London to proeure at regular intervals bashes of domestic servants. The Hon. Coppin was the originator of the movement, and it is said that, in placing the objects of the Society before the meeting of promoters or patrons, he unintentionally made some very erroneous statements concerning the rates of wages prevailing in England. Instead of wages being from £lO to £2O for women servants, they . are stated by the writer to be as follows—“An ordinary general servant, for two or three in family, with no washing, asked £lB to £2O per annum ; every other Sunday out; one whole day per month, with two days at Christmas _ and Whitsuntide. The general servant, who did washing, required £2O to £25 with beer, or the equivalent in money. A good cook commenced at £25 up to £4O „ per annum, with beer and fat-money. Jfow to the old colonists who remember England, some twenty years back, when wages averaged about £lO to £ls per annum, the figures quoted above may appear exorbitant, but they are none the less accurate.” In none of the Colonies i 3 the domestic servant difficulty more severely felt than in Hew Zealand ; and yet we believe that, on the whole, domestic service is a better and more

remunerative employment than can generally be obtained by girls in other ways. It is possible that eventually there may be a reaction, but at present the mass of New Zealand girls and youths apparently does not appreciate the “dignity of labour.” The former shun domestic service, and prefer employment in the workrooms, behind counters, and hotel bars ; and the latter constitute a crowd of eager expectants for Government and Bank situations, or for clerkships of any sort, however badly paid—anything, in fact, but work with the hands. Does not all this point to something wrong in the present system of education for both sexes ? It may nob be too good, but it seems to be defective in that it tends to unduly recruit the ranks of certain classes, and to leave others comparatively bare.