ENGLISH DOMESTICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10769, 15 May 1913, Page 4

ENGLISH DOMESTICS.

CONTROL OF ASSISTED IMMIGRANTS. NEW OFFICER'S RESPONSIBILITIES. [Fbom Or,n CoßWEsroNnjiNT.] WELLINGTON, May 14. The Government's immigration policy is becoming public property little by little as it is being put into practice. To-day Miss Agnes M'Lean, of Wellington, a trained nurse, who has been appointed to the Immigration Department's staff, took up her duties as lady I superintendent and went out to tho steamer Athenic at 7 a.m. to make her first acquaintance with a batch _of assisted immigrants, eighty domestics, who came welcome as rain in a drought- \ stricken land. As Miss M'Lean's father, Dr M'Lean, of Timaru, first mado his acquaintance with New Zealand by acting as medical officer on an immigrant ship for three voyages, there i 3 a certain amount of hereditary tendency behind Miss M'Lean's interest in immigration, an interest which prompted her to apply for the new position. DOMESTIC LABOUR BUREAU. Some important developments will follow the systematic work of the new officer. She is to endeavour to keex) in touch with assisted domestic immigrants for a year after they land. The Immigration Department will act as a domestic labour bureau., and the experience of the officers already shows that they will have no difficulty in placing reliable girls into good situations immediately they land. Country employers will be especially studied, because it is in the country that the scarcity of help is felt most acutely. The ordinary third-class passage from London to New Zealand" on a direct boat ranges from £l9 in a six-berth cabin up to £23 for a two-berth cabin, hut domestics who come under the Government wing pay only £2 16s in the first case and £6 16s in the last. The shipping company grants a discount in these cases, but the State has to pay £ll 4s of the fare of a domestic travelling in tho six-berth and four-berth accommodation, and £l3 4s where twoberth cabins are used. Thus the immigrant owes it to the community which has provided such substantial aid that she shall render in New Zealand the service which she undertook to qualify for the reduced passage. The Immigration Department will in future endeavour to keen assisted domestics under observation for twelve months to secure if possible that they carry out their part of the obligation and ■do not become factory hands, hecause the State is not prepared to subsidise an influx of that class of labour. Eighty assisted domestics came to New Zealand last week, and all have been placed, while only twelve out.of to-day's batch of arrivals are unsuited. They will probably find situations at from 17s 6d to £1 weekly the instant it is know r n that they are available. CHAPERONS ABOARD SHIP. Matrons travel out with every party of assisted domestics, and if the girls exceed twenty-five in number, two matrons accompany the party. Complaint has been made that the conduct of some immigrants aboard ship has. not been all that could he desired. This has received attention, the Minister of Immigration having strongly urged the shipping companies to group the assisted domestics in self-contained quarters, so that they can always he under effective oversight. " I was agreeably surprised at the class of gii-ls included in the Athenie's batch of assisted immigrants," remarked Miss M'Lean. " They _ were generally alert and keen and quite prepared for hard work. Some were undersized, and a remarkable proportion wore glasses, but they all seemed healthy, and will do well. I learned from many of them that the big attraction to them is the high rate of pay obtainable. Others seem to have simply come in an enterprising manner to see a new j country."