Domestic and Farm Service.

Southland Times, Issue 11388, 20 February 1890, Page 4

Domestic and Farm Service.

(By 'Civis Austhalis,' in Argus.)

An everlasting and far radiating orystal lisation ef thought is contained in Disraeli, preface to bis book, Lotbair. ' Tbe feudal syetem may almost have worn out,' he saye, ' bot it'a main principle, that the tenure of property should be the fulfilment of duty ia the essence of good govern ment.' If the axiom were reasonably belrt aud followed throughout Australia, I do not think there would be much trouble about domes ie and farm bervice. The trouble exists now, there ia no denying tbat. It is voiced from ali quarters of the Oolony. From the squatting districts w have heard, ' k is impossible to get our wool washed by whites, we must employ Chinese.' From tbo farmers in every locality where tbe harvest work has been heavy, lond and angry complaiotH have been made, 'we cannot get m«D, pay them what we will, they will not come to us and do our work.' And fr^m tbe city thn housewives' exceeiing hitter aod pouic times querulous cr} aacends perpetually.

And yet we soldi m ace any f ir attempt made to acawer the questions, what cus c the scarcity, and the tncompete* cy and the 'low grade' which certainly characterise* both classes of labor ? If another Stuart Mill could arise and expound for us thb unchangeable laws of su, ply a^d demand whicb rule here ac elsewhere, we might perhaps begin to form a right understanding, and to advance towards a reasonable remedy. But we lack 1< ading uf ibat sort, aud consequently we are phantom-led by innumerable grievance-vendors and nci-trum-mooger*. We bear of co operative societies for dishwashing, of joint stock companies for the imporia'ion uf plough men. But *by are tbe dishes unwanhed, and why are tbe lands anploughed ? Ask any man or woman the question, why do you not wash dishes or plough land, and what will the answer be ? Generally, I think, ' Because I can do a little better at Something else, because the commodity of muscular force which I possess will bring a better price in another market ; because in other ways I can get more money and moneys worth, more pleasure, liberty, prtBent payment for present toil.'

Money comes firet, of coarse, and it would be easy enough to show tbat the farm laborer and the domestic servaut render more service for less money than aoy Other workers in the community. Or, as the term service may be quibbled over, it may be bett9r, perhaps, to say they yield more personal liberty for a lets return. Tnis, however, ia the case the wide worid over, aod yet in other lands household hep aud agricultural help are pleutiful enough There seems, indeed, to be people in other lands, bora for the conntry and the house. A population has grown, adequate to all Wants, and a caste system in tollowed by choice, when it is not imposed aw au obligation. And are we takiog shape also in that necessary way ? Is it only the natural trouble of a growing period which vexe« and oppresses as, or can we note a growth Ot evil tender cy, aod an extending and hardening of oonditions which leave such painful gaps in life ? There wnl be general agreement, 1 think, that the latter is the cate, lcdeed, a moment's reflection on tbe farmers' troubles will be very convincing as to that fact. Within tbe laat ten yeara the introduction of improved machinery has re duced the labour of harvesting by at least two* thirds, and yet the difficulty of obtaining labour seems greater in this year than ever before. And, if some of the letters which have recently appeared io these columns are anything like fair statements of fact, the domestic trouble threatens to very seriously affect our domestic and social oonditions — to answer indeed tbe qoest'on 'Is marriage a failure ?' in a new and effective way.

And what is tbe cause of it all, and are the proposed remedies likely to reach it ? Will the importation of one or half-a--dozen ship loads of ' desirable female 8 begin to make an end of the domestio trouble ? Will tbe few hundreds of 'new girls'jsettled aa domestics become the nucleus of a new and better claes of the sortWill they keep to their service and send home to their friends and companions to join them, or will tbey themselves gradually become absorbed io the otber classes ? Woald a thousand good agricultural labourers distributed amongst the farmers stay with them, or would they also turn to the town billets ?

To arrive at an answer we have chiefly lo consider what they might gain by the obange, and what effect that prospect of more gain woald have, in breaking through their natural proclivities for the **ork to which they were bred, I fear my own opinions on this aspect of the cni« will be sadly ar variance with those of most of 'th' sufferers.' For, Beriooxly, it seems to me that the good steady idhq who desires to live a comfortable lif»-, and to do the best be enn for himself in Australia ie something of a fool to spend an> nlo.e of his years thin may be abeolotely tecessary witb a farmer. Tbera are so many ways in wbicb he can do better. A billet in a merchant's store will pay him better. Ha will be a far better mao, financially, ten years bence, if be joins the police, the railway,or the tram service At aDy of thb varieties of contractors' work in the bosh he bas chances whr h ihefHrm -.ervice wili never < im, uDd in not one of tbem will his personal liberty and comforts be lo meagre and scant, or bis daily, monthly, yearly average of <abour beeo long and so severe. Wby tben Bhould be willingly espouse the hardest lot ? Is it onr of pnre good will and personal sympathy with tbe distressed employer? 1 fancy tbe race of workmen have yet to be created who, in a pore ly basiness matter, will be controlled by considerations of that sort. And if bo much be admitted, is it of any use facing tbe otber side of tbe question, and asking, IB it possible to bring the furm labourer's ooadition ap to the level of that of the city labourer ?

There ie not merely a question of wages iPY9ITId bore, Ii pom* surer, perbspf,

to tbat fulfilment of duty wbich is the reasonable tenure of property, a duty which bae been neglected by tbe majority of Australian landowners through all our hundred yeare.

And the chief and chiefly neglected doty has been and id, tbe decent boosing aud providing for tbe men and the women necessary for Ihe proper working of the land. One does uot desire to be harsh in criticism of the poor selector or the pioneer squatter. The bark hut and the slash lamp, with a chunk of damper and a pot of tea, were their inevitable lot,and with them the servant could not aod did not expect to bo above his master. But tke poor and labor-paving self eter is exceptional in Victoria now, and the bark^hut squatter is a very far back- blocker. The majority of landowners, indeed, over the fairly popu lated areas of New South Wales and Victoria are very well able to provide proper accommodation for their w«rk people, and very few of them ever think of doiug anything of the sort. How many of our atouteat farmers think of putting up a cottage and providing a garden plot foi a married man. How maoy of our squatters lords of a hundred thousand fat acres, realise that the 30 or 40 men tbey require for their constant work, are or should be, even such as themselves, eager to form domestic ties, to share in the natural joys aod comforts of life ! Truly, when passing through great freeholds of this sort, whose revenues are sucked away and absorbed by absentee proprietors, wbeo noting the r wretched home stations, their filthy men's huts, having all the vices aud unrestrained by any of the discipline of barrack**, a rash longing grows at times for a power that could and would «ay, ' The tenure of pro perty shall be nauuht less than the fulfil ment of duty.' For tbe fulfilment of a very reasonable duty bere would be tho beginning of a domestic life which would by and bje end many of our domestic troubles. It would create families to whom home would be dear, though thrift would be necessary. It would mean tho cottage row, and not tbe barrack but, at tbe home station; tbe man tilling bis vegetables and fruit trees, the woman watering h<-r flower*, and tbe girl milking the cow, Its genera) adoption -wou'd give to us hundreds and thousands of girls habituated, i not exactly trained, to domestic service, to whom the desire of the city factory and shop would be foreigD, if not absolun-ly repellanl ; whosa lives and *h>Be loves would be true to the wholesome country, who would io^k forward to a yearly holi day and a permanent settlement there, and who would not desire much more tban to repeat tbe lives of their own parents.

But wha' is the use of imagining things of this sort, or of becoming angry because they are not, when there is no prospect whatever of th(Mr bting brought abou ? There is no general tendency aojobg-t ih-Auatr-dian employers of agriiuitural labor io encourage domesticity. The> do not see tho advantbge of it. It will cost a little money ; there can be no proptct of an immediate return, and so it is neglected aod ignored, and we all suffer. But wherever tbe matter has been seriously undertaken, in Australia and in Australasia, my own experience is that it has been attended with abundant success.

Throughout the Western district of Victoria, where a very pn per pride amoDKBt wea'tliy proprietors lias n censi attd thf* erecion of «ood labor, rs' homes, there is no difficulty wiih rcga d to donaHgiic BerviiDiß. 'Our own girls cotn« to us,' the Indies of ih« dis'rict will tell ynu,and they ure very different from the girls of the city as will be learned by a brief experience. And another instance which recently came under my notice is thtt of the two great woollen mills of Otago, N.Z. — the Moagid and tbe Roslyn. Skilled labonwaß required there, and of all sorts, men and women, boys aod girls. Thus families were introduced, and settled r omfortably,Hll working aod living together. And what is the result now, after 20 years of experience in the ono caso and 12 in the other? The answer from R slyn as fiom Mosgiel is, 'The labor difficulty rjever occurred to us. The parents makt gaod home.?, the children grow up, aDd all take naturally to the mill; they are attached to us and wo to tbem and tbe wages are not exorbitant at all, a vety little more han is paid al home.' TLe fo k* are all settled in their own cottages rou id about the mills, bound to each other aid to the ins itations by innumerable ties, aad unless caused by some dire misfoitune o r groa- act of folly on one side or the other, there never will be any troub'e ba* tween them. They are a-ttled in a natural manner, and thus they grow up naturalminded folks. Our whole py^tem of agri cultural ard paeioial settlement w a frnm tbe beginning unnatural. I. ban marvellously recovered and dcv loped io meet ways gr v dl •• , bnt still the gaps appear iD plicts, anl c->i S9 us much pain aud annojraDce.

There is do doubt tbat we may make temporary stoppages and c'osures by direct importation of the materials wanted, and if the schemes now afljat are poshed through with energy and discretion, and a little philantßrophy aod patriotism they will afford some relief. There should be no difficu'ty in placing a very large number of goou servao'i at something more than £30 a year, and there should be good Aus* tralian homes available for many of Dr. Bernardo's waifs ; but I am very firmly convinced that we ehall not obtain any permanent supply in tbat way. We mast grow oar own domestics and onr own farm servants by the proper and natural settlemeat of oar own coil. We mast bring ap good country folks ia good coantry homes, aad we mast keep them ia tbeir own moat necessary spheres by making them.iv some way or other, comfortable and desirable aa those of other occupations.

There will doubtless be tremendous difficulties in the way. Constantly reducing tbe hours and increasing the privileges of all laborers but those of tbe farm and the kitchen, tbe associated trades of tbe cities degrade these classes into a condition de tested almost aa thoroughly as serfdom amougst free people. Extorting every poB-Hblo fraction of labor, aßd yielding in one case at least but the barest minimnm of comfort and nothing like recreation, the domestic and agricultural employers act as the allies of the ' trades,' and constantly increase their own difficulties. So at least it has seemed to me, dealing always, be it understood, with broad and general facts, aod not nib the exceptionally hard cases which h re, as elsewhere, wonld be found to rn'ike the fonndations of very bad laws.

I loi'k for broad and effective relief in tht matter first from the rapid and general development of our many Victorian irrigation scheme-, and th* consequent establish* meDt oi many well to do houees which wiil have all the proper attributes of homes. I wieb alao, as muet every other man wbo knows the country with any thoroughness, that we could note some tendency towards tbe fulfilment of duty in tbe way of settling their own people amongst our many well to do landowners, and it is a matter of most absolute certainty that pulpit and press, platform and legislative hall, can hardly be too earnest and constant in urging the performance of this duty. But doubtless there are other sides, and the matter is broad and urgent enough to make all advocacy and argument of interest and importance.

Oou«in Kate : Are you coming to ikace with u« to-morrow. Fred 1 Fred— Well, I don't know. Awfully busy just now. Have to be at tbe office about one, then there's luncheon at two, and don't get away till put three.'

'Good morning, Mrs Gilllgan ; bow is Pat. rick thm morning?' 'Sure, he's no better, iir.' 'Wby don't you e«nd him to the hospi. tal to b:i treated ?' <To be treated ie it I F * lth * a / it'i toe deletion tilmmw ke hai