WILL DOMESTIC SCIENCE HELP TO SOLVE THE SERVANT PROBLEM?

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 226, 18 April 1914, Page 12

WILL DOMESTIC SCIENCE HELP TO SOLVE THE SERVANT PROBLEM?

One of the most difficult problems which the housewife of to-day has to solve is the* best method of accomplishing the- daily routine of household work the cooking and washing up, the* sweeping and scrubbing, the* dusting and tidying, not t< speak of the making and mending, which constitutes the major portion o* everyday life for the average v ife and mother. hither she must become in large measure the slave of her house and family, finding her time chief!} taken up with the performance of these necessary duties, especially whe*", in addition, the* charge of a youig family also devolves on her, so that ''he has ver> little leisure left for any interests outride her home; or she must depend upon hired help, which is often inefficient and unreliable, and is always liable to fail just at the critical moment.

In a recent issue* of the* “White Ribbon” reference was made to the* establishment of a Chair of Domestic Science in the Otago University, and to the work being done* in this connection in the Southern c ity ; and it would seem that here perhaps lies the partial solution of the problem just stated. For this reform is bound to have tar-reaching effects in mere than one direction. In the first place, the course* of instruction given, based as it i- on broad scientific principles, and carried out under the guidance of one who is both an expert and an enthusiast, brings within the reach of hundreds the* opportunity of learning modern method- whereby time and money e n be saved, and the household ta-k< be performed with the least expenditure of energy. Many a young housewife loses valuable* time* through not knowing tic* best method-. and through the* process of “finding out' by long and often bitter experience, she may come

to dislike that which should be :< pleasure. That which we can co well, we naturally find enjoyment in doing; the drudgery of housework is minimised when we understand the why and wherefore of what we do, and can thereby take short < «t- to the desired end. It is the housewife who, through want of knowledge and training, gets into a muddle over her work, and spends twice the time that she ought over it, that finds it irk some, and would fain hand it over to another to perform. More and more it is the rule now for the wife and mother to do her own work, as far as can be, and the possibility of getting good training, combined with the multiplication of labour-saving appliances, will tend to make this still more the recognised custom. And it must be that though only in Dunedin arc* University lectures delivered on this subject, yet it is taking every year a more important place in the syllabus of primary and scconckm schools, so that the day is not far distant when every girl in the Dominion will have the c hance of learning something of scientific and practical housewifery m in all its chief branches. Add to this the further fact that there is a growing desire to establish hostels where opportunity is provided for practice, not only in the separate operations of housewifery, but also in the more difficult art of housekeeping as a whole. The effect of all this must undoubtedly be to reduce the number cf inefficient housewives, and to increase the efficiency it domestic servants as .1 class. Hut this, however desirable in itself, is after all only a small part of what is needed for even a partial solu lion of the problem. Still more necessary is it to raise the status of the domestic servant. The days are past when the “slavey” c f the kitchen worked for a mere pittance from early till late, without a minute to c.dl her own, an afternoon off duty not to be dreamed of except as the rarest of

rare treats. Wages have risen lor this class of werk, as they have for every other, so that mistresses have accepted the position, and now expec t to pay good wages for the work done in the home. Also the* weekly halfholiday is now the rule in most wellregulated homes where domestic servants are employed. Hut the deeprooted tendency to look down on domestic servants as inferior beings, and domestic service as something infra dig is still very strong, and it is difficult to know how it can be e radicated from our -ocial order. IV> bablv making Domestic Science a subjec t for University degree, is more likely than anything else to secure this desirable end. For to begin at the highest point and level up to it is always more effective in bringing about any reform than to -tart at the bottom and work upwards from it. A somewhat analogous case i- that of nursing. Since the establishment of examinations and certificates for nurses, necessitating regular courses of study and training, and these by no means easy and low in standard, nursing has been lifted to the \ osition of an honourable and honoured profession. The “Sairey (»amp” type has passed for ever, good wages are easily commanded, rufses can insist upon the recognition of their rights, and a good nurse is treated with as much respect and consideration as a good teacher or a good doctor. A similar process may be expected to work itself out in the case of domestic service, but it will probably evolve more slowiy, so deeprooted are the prejudices to be* overcome. The one doctrine to be preached in season and out of season is that gospel of work, whose greatest apostle is grim old Carlyle, that all work in itself is equally honourable. that it is the* motive and -pirit lying beneath the work clone, the conscience and the principle cf which it i- the* visible manifestation it ithese that count, and not the external character of the work. The frank re-

Munition of this truth will help to bring about an improvement in the mutual relations between mistress and servant, and perhaps enable us to get back something of the spirit of the old days v.hen the lelation between employer and employed was mere than a mere “<a>h nexus,” and when the employer < f labour was not only master, hut adviser, protector and friend. Ihe ‘‘lady help” system of modern di\ s is an attempt to get bark to this happier relation, but it has many drawbacks, and is just as likely as any o'hcr to produce friction aid disuni on, unless the right spirit exists on both sides. It is impossible to forecast in detail the char.g s that will be worked in the matter of domestic service. Possibly one of the first will be in the direction of limiting the hours of set vice, as already is done in the case of domestic helpers who “sleep at home.” Certain it is that changes will only come gradual’}*. Many experiments will hue* to be tried, but no system is likely to be permanently successful that is net ' ised on the* principle of equal honour for all work. I!ai py will be the day when the word “seivant” has lost the stigma that has so long lain upon it, a stigma whollv at variance with the spirit of the* Master Whose word to His disciples was this: “Whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister, and whose ever would be fi r^ t among you shall be* ye ur * crvnnt. ”