DOMESTICS WANTED.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2442, 5 March 1909, Page 2

DOMESTICS WANTED.

A MEETING-OF LADIES. FREE IMMIGRATION URGED. NATIONAL PETITION TO PARLIAMENT PROPOSED. (Lyttelton “Times” February 26.) The scarcity of domestic servants in and around Christchurch -has reached such an acute stage 'that a number dr ladies who. have suffered are moving to secure a remedy. Yesterday afternoon a meeting of ladies' interested was held in the room of the YoungWomen’s Christian Association to consider the matter. The room was crowded, nearly one hundred ladies beng present, and Mrs Craeroit "Wilson » resided. 7 A number of''apologies for absence were received, the ladies expressing their hearty sympathy with the movement for the resumption of tlio system of free immigration as far as single girls are concerned. One lady offered to go Home to select suitable girls, and. several ladies made special reference to" the troubles of the country residents. The chairwoman explained that the idea of the promoters of the meeting was to induce the Government, to resume the system of free immigration under which many young-women had been brought out to New Zealand in the early days. She said that the whole success of the scheme depended on the work being done by the Government. Aii agent- would have .to be appointed to select girls and give i hem to understand clearly what sort of work would be expected from them in New Zealand, in order that there might be no subsequent difficulty. The girls from the country parts of Scotland and the North of England and Ireland were considered the most suitable. The Hon. G. Fowlds had said , that he was sure some of the Scandinavian women would bo most acceptable additions to the population. Many people did not agree with this suggestion, and believed that any free immigration should be limited to British girls. A strong reason why any scheme of immigration should he under the control of the Government was that careful and efficient supervision would be necessary. The girls should be placed in a special part of the ship, and should be under the care iff "a matron during the voyage and : mmediately after their arrival in New Zealand. Mr Fowlds had said that lie reared the liability that would he incurred in finding employment for the girls as soon as they were landed, but there did not seem to.be any real reason for anticipating difficulties in tnat respect. Captains of vessels bringing immigrants had often received letters on arrival at Hobart asking them to engage domestic servants. Of course,°much depended on the class of g"rls chosen. At a meeting of the Farmers* TJnon, Air. Evans had said that the assisted emigrants were of a most desirable class, and that the undesirable class were those who came to flip country without assistance. He h id said that he had not found a seloctcd man who was unfitted for farm ••work. That statement showed that the supervision of the Government was ("ireful, and was some assurance that the Government would not assist girls who were not suitable for the work in New Zealand. There were numbers of girls in the Old Country willing to come to New Zealand, but they could r.ot afford to pay any part of the passage money. 'Mrs Wilson added that he had received a letter from Mrs shepherd, who had been prominent in connection with securing the franchise for the women in New Zealand, and would be willing to assist the present movement. Mrs Shepherd had written that, knowing the number of tired mothers wlio sorely needed domestic help, she could not'' but feel sympathy with the idea of sending to Britain for carefully chosen young women who would be able to give the necessary assistance. “I think,” Airs Shepherd had added, “that an assisted emigration scheme by which the emigrants would pay at' least half the passage money would be much more likely to get the ear of Parliament, and would greatly lessen the difficulties that have to be met when canvassing for signatures to a petition. Some scheme might be devised that would he to the mutual advantage of the Old Country and of New Zealand.” Airs Shepherd had added that the success of any scheme would depend on the amount of support given it by the women interested.

Airs Hawdon moved the following motion: “That inrthe opinion of this meeting -the women of New Zealand should petition Parliament to restore, at any rate for some time, State free immigration of single women suitable for domestio service.” Mrs Hawdon said that she felt quite sure that the Government would give the subject full consideration if a really representative petition was sent in from a large number of all classes of womenvoters, such a petition as would put clearly before the Government the urgency of the.need. The scheme if it was to be carried would require much energy and public spirit on tho part of the women, for the time was short before Parliament assembled. Airs Hawdon dwelt at some length on the difficulties caused at present by the lack of domestic help and said that the chief sufferers were the women who could only afford the wages of one servant and could not get her because the supply would not meet the demand. "Was it not true that much of the restriction of the birth rate amongst respectable people" was the outcome of that scarcity of help? No business man would attempt any undertaking comparable with" that -of a poor, housewife in New Zealand. He

would say that the insufficient labor, supply made it impossible to work The business profitably. She thought that a needless bugbear was made of the labor party opposition, for could not the members of that party also bo convinced of the- neces.sitities of the women of New Zealand if the cry were loud enough? / The, motion -was seconded by Aliss Colborne Veel. She said that no remedy for the difficulty that existed was likely to he found within New Zealand. A great many girls-were receiving domestic instruction in the schools, but a very small percentage of the girls would enter domestic service. Perhaps one girl out of a class of thirty would take up "house-work. The others would go into the factories, into the shops, into all kinds of very pleasant -and vary honorable work. Their lives had been laid down for them by their parents, and no amount of proficiency in cooking was likely to induce them to enter domestic service. \ r et at the same time there were in Eugland very large numbers 'of girls who had to enter -all sorts of undesirable employment: , The sweated industries exhibit shown in Christchurch -at the time of the Exhibition spoke of the lives of girls and women who had -to enter cruelly ill-paid employment in order to make a respectable living. New Zealand had not enough girls to go round, while in England there were girls to sparer The country girls of England, who were going into the English cities in search of employment would be very glad to come out to Now Zealand and enter domestic service if- they could be ensured -a pleasant voyage and the certainty of good homes on arrival. A trustworthy agent in London would be wanted to collect the girls, and trustworthy matrons to supervise them on the way out to the dominion. . She felt sure that if a large petition were presented to ParLament a Government that had the interests of the people at heart would not hesitate to support the scheme. Aliss Waterston. secretary of the Young Women’s Christian Association, sa id that she would like to emphasise t>’e need for very careful supervision of the -girls during the voyage to New Zealand. She had been told by one girl who had arrived as an assisted immigrant that there had been COG people in the steerage. A matron Had been in charge of one party of girls, but she had not been a suitable person. -She had been fond of male society, had let the girls do pretty much as they pleased, and had had a good time herself. If the Government undertook the importation of girls, a part of the ship should be set apart for them, and they should be provided with some employment, so that they would not have weeks of idleness and had company. Some of the girls who hud arrived to take up domestic service had been very much disappointed on arrival. The agent who collected the girls would have to be very carefyl to toll tho whole truth .about the conditions. The girls should be told that they would receive higher wages than in Britain, but they should also be told that the cost of dressing was very much greater. Then it would be a mistake to lot girls come without having a litle money to fall back upon. In Britain they would have their friends -and homes, and would not.be rendered destitute- if out of a position for a short time. In New Zealand tho position would be different, and the girls should certainly be in a position to maintain themselves for a short time in ease of emergency. It would he necessary to be very careful that girls of a wrong class were not sent. Some British factory girls were of a very decidedly undesirable class.and they would constitute a most dangerous element to introduce into New Zealand. Tho necessity for strict supervision of the whole scheme was very real.

Mrs Carrington expressed the opinion that there would be no difficulty in getting plenty of girls of a good class to come to New Zealand if free passages and other facilities were provided. The Women’s Emigration Society in Great Britain was doing a great deal cf work, and was very careful indeed in -its selection of girls and women to send to the colonies. The very highest of testimonials and references were, required, and if the assistance of that Society were secured it could he relied upon not to send out any undesirable girls. In the past most of the Society’s efforts had been directed towards Canada and South Africa, hut probably it would be willing to send girls to New Zealand and, perhaps, even to assist financially. She herself felt that a good deal would be effected to improve the position in New Zealand, if mistresses would lettheir girls out every evening. A girl who had done a- good day’s work should be free to go out in the evening if she wanted to, as was the case -with the girls who worked in factories and shops. Alany more girls would enter domestic service if they wero given a greater measure of independence. Mrs Ross said that girls whoso homes were in the towns might reasonably he allowed their evenings out, but it was a different thing with girls whose homes were in the country. Mrs Carrington said that there was a danger, but the girls had their freedom if they worked in a factory or a shop, and were not prepared to accept less freedom in domestic service. If a girl could no-t be trusted, it was best to part with. her.

Madame Bernstein said that girls liad been taken out to 'Western. Australia under an immigration scheme, and tho results had been, most satisfactory. There had previously been a great dearth of domestic servants, and the scheme had proved a vast boon to the ladies. Mrs Wood said there seemed to be need for some scheme that would ensure the girls remaining in domestic service ‘after their arrival in New

Zealand. If service was not. attractive to the New Zealand girls, the' imported, girls,-might soon take up the filiinb atiiitudo and go into other employment. . . . Mrs Hawdon said that the immigration scheme must relieve the- pressure. It would bo a long time before tho country girls of England would take to factory .work. / Mrs Woods said that the girls from England found country life in New Zealand very different from anything that they had been accustomed to. They had nowhere to go after work, and as a result came into the towns and drifted into factory work. Airs Talbot said that the people of a young country were naturally ambitious, and she wished to protest against any suggestion in the direction of lowering wages. It was necessary to add dignity and attractiveness to domestic service, and any proposal in the other direction „would make tho position worse instead of better. Slio believed that it would be tho right thing to bring out tho girls, hut the immigrants must certainly be girls who would do credit to the service they proposed to enter. The girls who had been brought out to New Zealand in the early days under the system of free immigration had proved a most desirable class. In answer to a question from the chairwoman, Airs Harrington said that the chief demand was for “generals.” There was not much diffi--culty in getting housemaids and cooks. The chairwoman remarked, in answer to a question, that if the girls were given free passages by the Government they could hardly.be bound to remain in service for any particular timo. If the mistress paid a portion of the fare, then probably some agreement -would be possible. The girls should certainly be given a very clear idea of tho conditions under which they would be called upon to work before they left England, and she did not think that there was any desire at all to reduce wages. The chief attraction to the English girls would be the fact that wages were highIn the course of further discussion several ladies mentioned personal experiences which went to show that' there was a plentiful supply of suitable girls in Britain who would be willing to emigrate to New Zealand. One lady stated that an advertisement in an Edinburgh paper for a girl to look after children on the voyage to New Zealand and then undertake domestic work had produced about one hundred and fifty applications. The motion was put to the -meeting and carried almost unanimously. The chairwoman said that it would be necessary to appoint a committee, which would communicate with other centres in order that the petition might represent the "whole of New Zealand.

The following ladies wero appointed to constitute a committee, with power to add to their number; —Dr. Jessie Maddison and Mesdames Cracroft Wilson, Croxton, Pratt, f. Clark, Wood and Hurst-Seager. Mrs L. Clark was appointed secretary, and Mrs Pratt- treasurer. Tho meeting then closed.