THE SERVANT GIRL QUESTION.

NZ Truth, Issue 142, 7 March 1908, Page 4

THE SERVANT GIRL QUESTION.

The Women's Guild of New Zeal--and, which appears to have its headquarters m Auckland, would be a harmless institution if it were not used by the moneyed class as a means to exploit cheap imported labor. The secretary of the interesting body recently wrote to the Minister for Labor affirming that "there is a crying need for a suitable class of young women who will make, not. only good workers, but particularly good colonists." Either there exists deplorable ignorance amongst the toney wimmin guilders, respecting the economic aspect of the domestic ser-, vant question, or there is wilful misrepresentation of the actual facts, and a hopeless sense of dispropor- < tion amongst a hysterical crowd of females,, who remark, with anxiety, to the Minister : "Servants are so urgently needed that the consequences of delay will be the death of many ' more women through over-work, and alscT many unborn children." Therefore the quaintly ridiculous guild suggests :— . '■ "(1) That if the Government will pay '£12,' m place of £9, as already paid, and use their influence with us iir inducing a first-class shipping company to reduce the fares from £19 to £15 for domestic servants, provided that on an average 50 be sent out m each steamer monthly for one year, suitable young women m the British Isles would willingly pay £3 towards their own fare. "(2) That the, Labor Department invite all employers of domestic servants, who are m need of the same, to write distinctly stating their requirements." New Zealand prospers under the pleasant experience of plenty of work, and— for a country with rapidly-in? creasing;- population— plenty of people to do the work. It is true that periodical howls arise from the contemptuous class that has cornered most of the cash; that there is a scarcity of labor m particular avocations, but it is. a significant fact that m every case those unpopular employments are the most wretchedly paid m the Dominion. Farm laborers are scarce m New 'Zealand, simply because the country's backbone, which is getting passing rich under beneficent conditions, won't pay its slaves a living wage ; likewise, there is a dearth of domestic servants because the hours are long and ill-paid and .the girls are liable to be treated with haughty intolerance iby the womankind of some wealthy snob. Thus the arduous work of the factory and the short-hour toil of the shop are preferred to the sweated drudgery of a domestic, and instead of settling the ' -problem" by paying adequate remuneration for services rendered, the unspeakable boss of the servant girl sools his Women's Guild on to the Government to pay the cost of importing women from the Cold Country. In Campbell-Ban-nerman's damp territory the domestic servant cultivates hopeless servility to the "master" on nothing a week and cast-off clothing, and the sweated "wage offered by the N.Z. Women's Guild seems like a small fortune to the immigrants, who accept it with gratitude and graft like blafces till they become acquainted with the ruling wage and the high cost of living m this oveivlandlorded trinity of islands. They then take on more profitable employment, and an anxious crowd of wealthy persons once more deafen the Government wifch reminders that the domestic sorvant "problem" has reached an acute stage. The insufferable check of these rich persons who expect the Government to actually pay for the privilege of supplying them with cheap slaves is a spectacle that would be pathetic if it were not so dumniMl dishonest. Also the picture of ti leisured lady dying of over-work after rising at 11 a.m. and fatiguing horsolf with dress-shopping and late I dinner 'parties, is one that no artist I o!\n \n\\n\. ; while statistics show that jhurd work isn't responsible for unjhoru children. The toilers have the Uu'jfit&sit families, and a kidless marrirtjse aoeomnivuics luxury and the (HipwMtv for employing domestics at ft jWeft'tet! Wrtgtv