ENGLISH SERVANTS' GRIEVANCES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11952, 31 March 1894, Page 3

ENGLISH SERVANTS' GRIEVANCES

The British domestic (says the Christchurch Press) is still far from happy. Masters and rnistresoes are never tired of complaining that servants are not what they ought to be, or, indeed, what they used to be, but there is reason to believe that the mucli- abused domestics have genuine grievances on their side. Archdeacon Farrar, who recently presided over a meeting of tiie London and Provincial Domestic Servant's Union, said that thousands of employers were good, considorate, Christian people, who recognised their duty towards their employes. But thousands a'so were not considerate, and their servants were badly fed, badly housed, and bady paid, and subjected to extraordinary exactions of toil and service. Two members of the Committee who were interviewed by a representative of the Pall Mall Gazette gave a harrowing account of the woes of their class. To begin with, they are fleeced by the registry oiDce keepers, who insert bogus advertisements in the provincial papers of tempting situations which do nut exist, the object being to delude the servants" into coming up to town in order that tbey should lo.'.ge ht the registry office at a fine margin of piofit to the keeper. Servants fortunate enough to get situations find their work enormously increased of Jate years, cbisflv owing to the growing practice in London society of giving receptions and eveii balls on Sunday evening. Then tho sleeping accommodation given to servants in many " swell " houses is disgracefully inadequate. In some placeß, we are told, it is vile, not fit for human beings. '■' Id most fashionable houses," says Mr Lee, a member of the committee.andhimselfaservant, '■ footmen have to sleep on the pot-board, below the kitchen dresser, while I myself in a former place, near Hyde Park, had to sleep in a pantry, with the dustbin just outside my window, and a sink connected with a drain outside within nose-range. This meant keeping the window shut, and, considering tbo gas bad been alight all day, you can imagine the condition of the atmosphere. But personal experience like these are nothing compared with those which have sometimes come before the Bccioty. They are too disgusting to publish." We can hardly expect this sort of thing to produce efficient service. If employers want their servants to do their work properly, they should at least treat them like human beings.