“FINE LADYISM.”

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume IV, Issue 328, 30 October 1875, Page 3

“FINE LADYISM.”

’ That unfortunate disease of women and children known as “fine ladyism” is supposed in the old country not to exist in her fortunate colonies. It is presumed that colonial girls grow up amidst a set of circumstances which compels them to become capable women —that is, capable in the sense of knowing and being able to execute the thousand and one domestic duties which none but women can do deftly and appropriately. We out here come across frequent complaints in Homo papers of the manner in which girls of all classes are growing up at Homo: those of the richer classes to be merely inane vehicles for the exhibition of tasteful clothes; those of the middle and poorer dosses to be more “dolly mopsthose of all three classes to be afflicted with “fine ladyism.” And mingled with these same complaints are continually found assertions that such a state of things docs not prevail in the colonies; that in these new lands there is no time for “'fine ladyism,” and that girls have to grow up fitted to be helpmates for men. It must be humiliating' to the self-respect of I colonists to have to admit that nowhere is “fine ladyism” more rampant in all classes than it is amongst them. Our girls, high and low, rich and poor, are, in the average, permitted to grow into the most contemptible specimens of fine ladies it is possible to imagine. The true women here are not the native article; they are imported, and, side by side with their husbands, have shown themselves fitted for the duties of colonists, by making comfortable for their husbands the homes those . husbands do their best to maintain. ' Their’s has been and is the experience ' of changed circumstances, under which ; the man was glad to do any honest | work, in a country where honest work • will always procure decent living, and j under which they did not hesitate to soil their fingers with household duties,

' which in the old country none but ser--1 rants could bo permitted to perform. ! Or if they were women who at Home did not keep servants, they all the , more readily showed their worth out here by acting the pleasant thrifty 1 housewife amidst the roughness and 1 plenty of early colonial life. Hut in neither cases have the daughters grown up like the mothers. In almost all . instances the daughters hare, from infancy, been accustomed to see the mothers doing household work and occupied by household cares, and have accepted their parent’s position, not as an example to be followed, but as one of proper domestic economy which, however, it would not - be proper to expect them to till themselves in the future. Amongst those who are considered, or consider themselves the bettor classes in New Zealand, the evils arising from this state of thingn are great, but amongst what are known as the working classes they are intolerable. Miss Mercator, for instance, remembers the time when there were no seirants in the colony, let alone in the family, and mother, a well-bred proper lady, did the servant’s work, as a lady can do it so well. But slm herself was never called on to aH.si.st. Now, Mercator, senior, is tolerably well to do, and bis wife is merely called on to control, not to work for a household. Miss has several sisters and two or three brothers. The girls have grown up, and can dance and llirt, but can neither make a pudding, mend a shirt, or contrive a dress. Their clothing is bought for them, and they understand the fashions. They many and do not receive positions. , Mercator’s business is not yot largo enough to enable him to give anything ■ with his girls. Miss, in all probability, marries Tom Cornstalk, who can color a meerschaum pipe or play billiards as well as any of Ids acquaintances. The result is a home in which the wife can of her own exertions effect 1 no savings, whore a servant is soon found out of the question, whero a dinner means discomfort, breakfast a misery, and shirts with buttons objects of unattainable desire. Tom seeks consolation where lie found it before marriage, liis powers of 1 pipe-coloring are the envy of some hotel coterie, bis winning hazards scientific lessons to younger players. His wife becomes that most wretched ■ of all created objects, the shabby--1 genteel lady, and a home in the--1 truest sense of the word will norm’ , bo the lot of either. It does not follow that Tom goes to the dogs. Our coJoi nial young fellows hare nearly all a - dash of native cunning about them 1 that keeps them from such an end, ; but ho will feel no comfort, or take no pride out of a wife, a hearth, and a ■ family. This is lend enough, but it Is ’ as nothing in the case of c man lower ■ down in society. Miss Bitanbrace’s ' father, has been and is, a hard-working . carpenter. Her mother has for yearn 1 been the family domestic. Tins 1 daughters have grown up, with all their wants supplied for them by their mother; they can sew a little, perhaps, but to wash they would bo ashamed. I heir literary education has not been neglected, but has been unhappily ; cared for in an unfortunate direction. The London Journal and other equally 1 useful books have boon their only ’ study. Over a sowing machine at 1 some shop they earn a few shillings each ■ week, which are carefully devoted to ■ the purchase of panics, iViottas, and mosaic jeweller}'. Their stockings may bo as full of holes as a sieve, ! their under linen unwashed, their petticoats worn and torn, but this is all concealed by what newspapers would call a fashionable exterior. They attend a dancing class on every possible evening. There Miss Bitanbrace meets her fate in the shape of young Horseshoe, who would not learn his father's trade of blacksmith, but by interest has got a place in a neighbor’s shop, or a petty clerkship behind somemcrchantV counter. They marry, and Tom has a? wife who canifot cook a chop,. boil a potato, or wasli his clothes. Uirt and discomfort soon send him to the public-house, neglect sends her perhaps to the same place, perhaps to worse. Marriage in such cases only delays fate. The case with which enough for the purchase of cheap finery is earned keeps girls of the Bitunhraoo class in an atmosphere of false excitement and pleasure in which they make the fail so fatal to woman, and soon merge amongst the poor creatures who in our larger towns brazen their frailty in the open day, or flit about the dark and silent streets at night. They have learned non© of the home duties which would enable them to have kept their husbands by their sides, or if unmarried, would make them trusted servants in some family. If tried in the latter capacity, they would pro* Babiy light the fire with fresh butter, and polish the grates with boot blacking. These are our girls, who in hundreds are growing up day by day to be tl fine ladies,” and not the wives and mothers of colonists.— N.Z. Tmt*