A WAGER WON.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 76, 6 May 1914, Page 6

A WAGER WON.

THE LIGHTER SIDE OF THE COMPETITIONS. There was an anticipatory bustle at the Competitions' concert last evening, when it was announced that the prospective candidates in the "Impromptu Speeches" competition were safely under lock and key in the secretary's office, whence they would be led forth one by one to deliver an unpremeditated speech of five minutes' duration on a subject hitherto not disclosed to them. That subject was "The reason of the domestic help difficulty as viewed by the mistress and by the maid."

One minute was allowed the competitor to collect his thoughts, four to make them known to the audience, and a fifth to continue in the same good work if his flow of language would permit him to do so.

The seven competitors might be divided into two classes, those in the one class whose utmost ambition was to keep up a supply of "small talk" for the prescribed five minutes, and those

in the other class who seriously or otherwise endeavoured to deal with the question.

Mr A. Andrews, of Greymouth, the winner of the competition, formed one of the latter class, while Mr C. H. Pullyn, of. Wellington, was one of the former, who kept his audience convulsed with laughter, but did not convince the judge that his speech' was the best allround effort. These two "stunts" were as follow: Man with Mission. "The domestic help .difficulty is one of the most serious in the Dominion at the present time, because, ladies and gentlemen, it affects every member of the community. Mistresses have "attempted to solve the difficulty.by importing girls, but that can be nothing but a superficial solution. We are living in times very different from those of olden days. Girls are receiving better inducements than in times gone by. They are more refined, and have tastes far above those of the common servants. On the other hand girls have more opportunities of entering into other fields of employment. Now every possible field of employment is open to them. The mistresses think the girls have,no time except for amusement, and that they value themselves too highly. They have therefore brought in new girls. What we want to do is to change public opinion. We want to teach that that work, however menial it may be, is of equal value and importance as other work. Trades were made before professions, and every possible gap has to be filled. . There is a very superficial public opinion that grates on the minds of maids and mistresses that menial work

is unworthy. The gentlemen are to blame also. They refuse to marry girls who have been in domestic service. They want a girl with white hands, who plays the piano, is refined, and all that sort of thing. This public opinion has to be changed. We must regard the employment in question as being as necessary as anything else, and must make it more attractive. One way of go (,t in glover this difficulty is to allow the girls to go home when they have finished their work. Every girl, if she has something to look forward to at night, is quite contented." Time was called here, but the speaker was ho engrossed in his subject that he had embarked on another train of thought before he noticed the fact. He was advocating the establishment of schools where the girls could be trained

to become! better girls and better servants, and incidentally the problem of the domestic help difficulty would be solved. ' ; The Funny Man. " Mr Pullyn had the audience right from the jump. His facial expression was excellent as he perused the weighty question before him. Then he smiled — the audience smiled; he laughed—and the audience laughed, and the merriment grew until the minute for cogita-: tion had expired. The speaker seemed rather to fear that the chances were he would not be able to spend five minutes on the stage successfully, and opened with the coup-, let, "I. have to take this very slow, so as to make the time lay low." The actual speech was as follows, but it was so punctuated with applause and laughter as to put the speaker and the audience on the best of terms. "I suppose it all depends on who the

mistress is, and on the person and temperament of the maid. We have all classes of mistresses and all classes of maids. Of course it very awkward for

I [Letters to the Editor will be found jOn page B.] ,

a maid to work successfully with a newly married wife. (Aside: 'Let me look at the question once more!') You will generally find that a haughty mistress who has a maid leaves so much work to her that it is only natural that the maid should strongly object. Of course I won't explain to you what they have to do because I don't know, but I will explain to you that some, of the work they are asked to do is most objectionable. You will notice that in speeches of this kind they never give you a subject upon which you know absolutely anything. I think this ought to have been given to the ladies, who know something about it, instead of to a poor unfortunate individual who has never engaged a servant yet. I might tell you I am up here on a wager. I am going to stand up here for five minutes. If I don't I shall lose the wager. Is the time nearly up yet?" The time was up, and the young man left the stage amidst prolonged applause.

The other speakers dealt with the subject variously, but these two speeches are one from each class.