THE DOMESTIC HELP

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2477, 16 April 1909, Page 6

THE DOMESTIC HELP

[To The Editor.]

Sir, —I have seen by the local Press that a meeting of the ladies of Gisborne adopted\thc wording of a petition for presentation to Parliament up op the dearth of.domestic helps; that petition is a strange piece of manufacture in itself. It beai‘3 the masculine stamp very ' clearly. The petition would i>;> a great '""bhang for such a humorist as Dickens to get hold of; it’s so glaring with falsehood and deception, and the claws of the coldblooded money-grabber can be seen through the thin covering of the milk of human kindness which it pretends to contain. Take the following for a sample: “The petition points out that it is not the wealthy or the well-to-do ehisses that suffer, and they strongly avow any intention of objecting to the present standard of wages for domestic workers, or directly or indirectly effecting a reduction of the same.” According to the above the petitioners have no intention, directly or indirocilv, of reducing the rate of wages. Oh, shade of George Washington; do you hear that!" Taney that if there were thousands of girls brought to this country to-morrow, would those innocent women pay their servants 13> .per week if competition compelled equally as good a girl to offer her service for s.s''** I have more faith in the honesty of women than to believe they understood the petition they signed, or are about to sign. There are many women fax' too honest and honorable to have anything to do with so crooked an affair as that is. The following is a specimen of amusing absurdity, and the draughter seems to go out on his dira, anti exhibits his nationality as veil as his sex The increasing demand for women workers in manufacturing industries as a result of the working of the Preferential Tariff. Oh, has woman tussolled with the problem of preferential tariff? And if so, bow could they come to the conclusion that giving preference to a country without reciprocity would increase the manufacturing powers of it? So much fur the- petition. I, for one, would have more respect for the petitioners and the petition/ if they only said straight out that they wanted to reduce the present rate of wages and make the miserable life of the domestic still more miserable. Tor that is really what it means. Let us now look into the rate of wages paid and the working hours of the domestic servant. I have been told that: the largest wages paid is 17s 6d per week, and the few who get that work from half-past five in the morning until halt-past seven at nmbt, or on an average of 13 hours per clay, with a half a day per week to themselves. This will work out at twopence half-penny per hour. But tin? average wage is 13s. Now, can any person wonder that girls go to work in factories in preference to domestic service. In the latter they get smaller pay for the hours they work, and too often receive insults from vulgar mistresses.' If the employers were to wav their domestics an adequate amount of wages, and if the Government would provide each town with some qualified lady to teach the mistresses some manners they would bestow an everlasting blessing on t.ie -'-''r/m’fiestlc ‘h'fhtiTciiv. A"am f "etc.. M. MANNIX. Gisborne, April 15, 1909.