DOMESTIC SERVICE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 49, 6 December 1890, Page 15

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

TO THE EDITOR. SIR, —I should like to avail myself of this column to point out one or two matters that specially concern women. M ith the relations of mistress and maid, men have, as a rule, little to do. They are silent on this most important and significant side of human life, and women have to deal, single-handed and alone, with this >-reat problem. In feudal times, no doubt, their task” was easier. Now, thanks to a liberal education, servant girls are not content with what sufficed them years ago. They have advanced with the century, and very few mistresses realise that this is the case. Hence, the domestic machinery is constantly jarring. The causes of this friction have never been definitely ascertained. ‘ For a certain amount of money and board and lodging they (the servants) undertake to do a certain amount of badly defined work. But here the business relation ends, and the human relation, tremendous in its scope and importance, begins." So says Mis Francis Darwin in an English magazine. One cause of friction, I think, is that this human relation is ignored by many mistresses. They treat their maids as bound to do a certain amount of work, and when that is done to the ladies’ satisfaction they take no further interest in their servants. They do not consider what a lonely life many a girl leads. Generally a considerable distance from home, seeing those of her own class but rarely, she feels sometimes a longing for a little chat, a chance of indulging in a laugh. AH young girls in whatever rank of life they niay be feel the absolute necessity of intercourse with their fellow-creatures. Certainly the few measured remarks of the mistress of the house anent the dinner or the dusting, or the abuse or non-use of soap, coal, and candles, can hardly be termed conversation, and there are few women indeed who can get through a whole .week without talking to some one. Do ladies when they declaim against ‘ evenings out ’ ever think of this ’ There are, I reluctantly own, some girls on whom you may lavish holidays and kindnesses, and in return miss various little articles, besides having the work badly done ; and, on the other hand, there are mistresses who do' not deserve good servants. This is the state of affairs. Can anyone suggest an alteration ? Progkessia.