AS OTHERS SEE US.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19259, 25 August 1924, Page 8

AS OTHERS SEE US.

DAILY CHRONICLE ARTICLES. DOMESTIC SERVANT PROBLEM. A USEFUL SUGGESTION - . (From Ook Own Coreeseondent.) LONDON, July 14. Mr Fenton MaoPherson’s articles concern* ing conditions in New Zealand continue to appear in the Daily Chronicle. In his fifth contribution he described the dominion hydro-electric scheme, his information having been gained mainly from the Hon. J. G. Coates. His introduction to the subject is a eulogy of Mr Coates. “ The Right Hon, W. F. Massey, Prime Minister of the Dominion,” he writes, “who has a genius for picking out able young members and turning them into capable Ministers under his own fostering guidance, made no mistake when he called on Mr Coates to shoulder the responsibilities of office. He hid chosen a forceful young man who has since justified his election and elevation by his ability to think ahead for New Zealand--a young man whose powers of initiative and apparently exhaustless energy are enabling him to render invaluable service to his country.” The writer of the article goes on to, describe the strenuous life of the Minister of Public Works. “Despite his iron-clad constitution,” he says, “and his constant expenditure of energy in journeyings about the dominion, Mr Coates is a dreamer of diroams. The electrification of Now Zealand is dream of his life.” This is the introduction to an inspiring statement made by the Minister of Public Works about the electrification of New Zealand. In a sixth article Mr MooPherson discusses the servant question in New Zealand and'frankly reveals the sad state of affairs. But the article is interesting chiefly for a statement and a suggestion made by Mrs MaoPherson. “ Whue on the voyage out,” she says, “I had several opportunities of talking with young women who, having been in dom'estie service at Home, were on their way to take similar situations in New Zealand.

“ Few of them bad any clear idea of what a New gealand house was like, its furnishings and fittings, or how it was worked. Arid they did not always seem to realise that housework out there might not be carried on in exactly the same way as in the Old Country. . “This lock of knowledge may account for the seeming helplessness of domestics just out from Home, when taking up work for the first time, amid the unfamiliar surroundings of what, to them, is an absolutely new country, with its own way of doing things even in housework. MODEL HOUSE IN- LONDON. “All this might be obviated if a house, built on tire New Zealand model, on one or two floors, furnished and fitted in all its details in the New Zealand fashion, were erected in, say, London where it would bo open daily, and especially on Sundays, for inspection by domestic servants and other young women who may he thinking of bettering their condition by migrating to the dominion. Such a house planned on the abovementioned lines would be an object-lesson for all accepted, as well as possible, domestic migrants privileged to visit it. More especially if it were placed in charge of New Zealand-bom women. “ It is quite possible also that the housed, being so well'planned from the woman’s point of view for easy working, with all its fitted-in furniture, its easily-mopped polished floors, its few stairs, its electno or gas fires and its airy rooms and spacious verandahs, might attract to New Zealand energetic, self-reliant, educated young women who while skilled in cookery and really fond of household work and management would not dream of entering domestic service here at Home.”