A DOMESTIC ASSISTANT ASSOCIATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6132, 19 March 1898, Page 6

A DOMESTIC ASSISTANT ASSOCIATION.

— «■ [Bt ItEORGINA FbRKDAT.] One of the ever present and most exasperating worries of modern life appears to be the domestic servant difficulty. At Home and in the colonies the trouble prows daily more serious, and it affects, not only the harassed housewife, but tells severely on the health and temper of her lord and little ones. On every side one hears of the impossibility of getting or keeping capable girls. Service is now looked upon by many as a species of slavery, even counted a degradation. No fairly educated young woman will enter its ranks if she can find her way into shop, workroom or factory. To be addressed as " Miss," to be allowed to wear ■what she pleases, to have her evenings and Sundays free, and to be considered "a young lady," she will gladly accept very small pay and live contentedly on scant fare; or get no pay at all,. and remain a burden in her father's house. What this state of things may bring girls to in the future is a most serious and Bad question, on which we will not at present enter. Our American cousins in many cases have wholly abandoned home and family life, so that they may be spared the anxiety and strain of house and servant - keeping. Numbers have betaken , themselves and their children to the immense boardinghouses and hotels which abound, where they lead a more or less public life ; where the sweet privacy of home is entirely forgotten; where the children are frequently herdod together and are totally apart from their parents, depending altogether on the management, training and influence of complete strangers duriug their earliest and most impressionable years. And all this is done with a view to save "worry" and make life easier. But to us the sacrifice seems too great j euoh methods do not commend themselves to the home and family-loving Englishman, or to the British colonist, who treasures in his deepest heart the old tradition, " England, Home and Duty.". There must be some solution of the difficulty ; some way oufc of the never-ending fret and bother about household details. We want a few capable heads and hands to organise a " Domestic Assistants' Association," whereby many young girls of the right sort, who are able and willing to do home work for pay, may be brought into communication with the worried wives and mothers amongßt us. As a part of the Association a central ladies' kitchen might ba established, where well-prepared food, such as soaps, fish, poultry, joints, pies, entrees, sweets and savouries . could be ordered, and families .fegitfarly supplied with breakfasts, . lunbheons and dinners plain or elaborate, as required. To do this satisfactorily it would be necessary to form a company in the ordinary way, with directors and shareholders, and appoint a competent, manager and lady cookj who<jould arrange the food supplies and find capable lady assistants to work -under her, or to send out when wanted. In this way, cooking at home, the chiefest source of domestic M worry, would be done away with. Mis- p| tresses could then easily manage with one yoonpr girl for housework instead of Buffer- ■ ing daily torment at the hands of a general muddler, or so-called cook, who can never be counted on to send things to table twice the same; or in many cases it would ba possible to arrange for daily visits from jMsapable " domestic assistant/* who would do the housework for a moderate remuneration to be -arranged on tho Association's tariff. This plan, if well carried out, would pay the shareholders. It would save householders the wages, waste and keep of servants; it would provide a living for many competent women who would gladly find remunerative employment; andit^wouH relieve hundreds of anxious wives and mothers of daily and hourly "vexation.

Chamber of<2ommebce. — Thecommittet -■of the Chamber of Commerce has decided to obtain from the grain merchants fair average samples of wheat of the Tuscan, Pearl and Hunter's White varieties of this season's growth, with a view to establishing a standard for the North Canterbury district. In connection with the alleged defective weighing of grain by the railway authorities, the Produce and Exporters' Committee of the Chamber has forwarded the following resolution to the Minister of Railways :— "That the committee again represents stronglyto the Minister of Bailways the gross injustice which continues to be made in weighing grain in truoks at Lyttelton. Already this season much confusion and annoyance have been caußed to both merchants and sellers, and the present system is bo inaccurate as to be of little value. As there are no other means available for weighing gram m bulk sent direct down to the vessel, the committee again urges that special instructions be given on the subject, and that more care be taken in future." In an accompanying letter the committee suggests that much of the present confusion is possibly owing totfrequentrchangesofoffioialß.