DOMESTIC HELPS.

Poverty Bay Herald, 17 April 1906, Page 4

DOMESTIC HELPS.

AX APPEAL TO* THE PREMIER. THE LADIES DEMAND SERVANTS, The Premier never escapes deputations, but they are xusually composed of mere men, and confine their attention to roads and bridges and new railway stations. At Rangiora Mr Seddon had a new experience. He was boldly tackled by a deputation composed of Lidies, and asked to solve the domestic help difficulty. Mrs Malcolm Macfarlane, of (Joldstream, headed the deputation. She said that the ladies represented by the deputation had been advised to apply to the Premier of the colony for relief from their troubles. Servants were required very badly, and tlhey couldi not be. obtained. The Premier : How do you account for the position? Mm Macfarlane : I think it's because the people are so prosperous that the girls don't want money. They may go out to get a few pounds for their tronseaui and then they marry. We really want girls, and we can't get them. I am well off at present, but to get the girl 1 have had to stop in town a week and visit several registry offices three 'times a day. If you will do something for the housewives they will be very much obliged. The Premier: I little expected that a. charge would be levelled against the Government in this matter. The cause of the- servant girl difficulty, it appears, Tiie (ToyernmoTuVfias uelped to bring that about it is responsible for th© scarcity of servant girls. It never strudc me in that ligirt before. Continuing, the Premier said that if ■the ladies would spend a \Veek in Wellington and visit -the members of Parliament three times a day, something would soon be done. Tlic members would demand that the Government should provide servant girls or resign. There was no doubt that the- servant girl difficulty was a very serious one, but he did not see what was to be done. If the colony's deniiind for girls Avas understood in other part's of the world the girls . would be. supplied. A woman in Gei-aldine had done something to solve the. problem by presenting her husband "with three .baby girls, but that process was slow, and some steps were required in the meantime. No funds had been appropriated by Parliament for the purpose of paying the passages of servant girls from the Old Country,, and he was inclined to think that the House would not agree to a policy of immigration even to meet the difficulty. Pending the opening of Parliament, however, he had given instructions to the High Commissioner in London, if the shipping "companies would agree, ! to assist servant girls in obtaining passages on the terms offered to farmers' wives and farmers' daughters. More" labor was needed, and could not be obtained in the colony,; and yet some people objected td its importation. The Government had not sent for the navvies, and had' refused to guarantee -work, but it had stated that the work was here, and that the men could come under the reduced passage system. He would make it^public that the servant girl difficulty still existed,* and that for good girls an unlimited demand still existed. That-, he hoped, ■world hiivo some effect in improving the position.