The Immigrant Maid

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 20, 19 May 1909, Page 2

The Immigrant Maid

What is Really Wanted—The Servant’s Point of View

By

Dog Toby.

Raise the Social Status. EAST week I dealt with the need that existed for domestic helps, and the necessity for some scheme of immigration. But there is another aspect of the question that calls for some notice, and which has a good deal to do with the scarcity that undeniably exists. The social status of workers needs raising if we are to have anything like a steady supply, and their hours of work must be more strictly defined. It is not so much a question of wages as some people imagine. I know a lady who pays 25/ a week, and yet she can. never kee pa girl for more than a month or two, and I know another lady who only pays 8/ a week, and not only does she keep her girls, but she could get ten applications to-morrow if she wanted anyone. Kindness and consideration go much further than mere money, and it is because so many mistresses are neither kind nor considerate that girls prefer a factory or an office to work about a house. Woman's True Vocation. There can be no question that looking after a home is woman’s natural sphere, and household work is the most honourable occupation a woman can have. When a home is neglected, the husband’s temper suffers, and his work is often badly dene. To those who- minister to our comfort in the house we men owe more than we know, and every consideration should be shown to those who perform the often thankless task of preparing th© meals and keeping the place clean and tidy. . Yet by some curious perversion of our nature many people consider the servants as belonging to a class that is in some mysterious way beneath them, and they affect to look down upon the very people to whom they owe most of their comfort and ease. It is funny, and to the discerning eye it has a touch of quaint humour, but the fact remains all the same. It reminds one of the Roman dame who —well, the story is slightly improper, so perhaps I had better not tell st, but students of the classics will recognise the allusion. I never hear women talking in disparaging tones of their servants without thinking of this famous Roman and wondering if they would act as she did. If we really want girls to take up domestic duties, we must do all iu our power to make them feel that the occupation is the most honourable and the most highly esteemed that they could undertake. The True Gentlewoman. In nothing is gentle birth and breeding more clearly shown than in our treatment of those dependent on us. It is a surer test of a person's upbringing and antecedents than even the correct use of the word “fellow” or the correct pronunciation of the word “girl,” those pitfalls that so often trap the unwary. It is a social sin to talk of the Marquis of Salisbury instead of Lord Salisbury, or to put salt in your soup before tasting rt; but it is a far greater social sin to be overbearing in manner towards those who move in a humbler sphere of life. In connection, with which fact, I can recall a good story of an exceedingly aristocratic dame and a somewhat underbred English vicar. The cleric had risen from the ranks of the small shopkeeper class, and gave himself a multitude of patronising airs and graces towards the very class to which he himself by rights belonged. Ha was puffed up with notions of his own importance, a delusion that was not shared by any of his flock. One day the aforo-

said dame wrote to the vicar, asking hint to call on her housekeeper, who was dying, and the vicar replied that he never called upon servants; he left that to the eurate. The lady replied very sweetly to the effect that she had forgotten, -when she wrote, that he would not be in a position to understand the way in which families like her own regarded their old servants, and she had therefore got Lord X, a neighbouring rector, to call and look after her housekeeper. Long Honrs. A grievance felt by many girls Is the fact that there are no definite, fixed hours of work. They are often expected to rise with the lark and continue their work till long after nightfall. I have heard of mistresses keeping a girl going from 6 in the morning till 9 or 10 at night, and then they wonder that it is so hard to get anyone. Conditions in New Zealand, where often only one girl is kept, are materially different from conditions at Home, -where most people keep two or more. A girl by herself naturally feels more lonely, and it is only right that she should be the more considered in consequence. Much could ba done to render housework more attractive if mistresses would not only limit the working day to eight hours, but would also help in the work themselves. Washing vote and dishes is not exactly an inspiring, though it is a very necessary, occupation, and much of the drudgery of it would be relieved if the lady of the house would give a hand whenever she was able. If girls were treated more as helps and less as household slaves, more as friends and less as potential enemies, we should have less to deplore in the matter of the difficulty of getting efficient maids. The Dignity of Service. For, after all, the lot of a young girl going into a strange house fresh from the comfort and liberty of her own home Is rather trying at first. She is relegated to the kitchen, and has her meals In lonely state, and spends her evenings in solitude. Unless a person’s social position is so insecure that it is necessary for her own protection to create an artificial barrier betwixt herself and her maid, a mistress would do much both for herself and her domestic if she sometimes sat with her and showed an interest in her work and her recreation. No people in the world are quicker to recognise the falcon on the shield than servants, and a real lady need never fear that her kindness would be presumed upon, or tJiaß service would be the less willingly rendered. We have the highest authority in the world for looking with the greatest honour and respect on those who serve. Was it not St. Paul who said that Christ Himself came in the form of a servant, and was it not our Lord who said that the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister?