THE DOMESTIC PROBLEM.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 415, 26 January 1909, Page 4

THE DOMESTIC PROBLEM.

AVhile the.English wpinan has been crying out for a vote tho women of New Zealand have- grown tired entreating: -for servants, and np>V tho men have taken up tho cry. A deputation from the Canterbury Shcepowners' Association waited on the G, FowtDS in Christchurch yesterday, to ask if the Government' could not dp something to increase the supply of domestic "helps" for Canterbury. It was .pointed out that suitable girl (servants are extremely .rare in. tho cities, in the country they are almost improcurable'. The position, :said one speaker, is becoming .acute, a,n.d is affecting land settlement, in which women are just.' as necessary as men'.'. All oyer the Dominion tho complaint'of the Canterbury : stationholders wjll be ohdorsed. In the present state of the domestip la.bflur'market, the woman'who does not cbvet her" neighhour's maidservant-must be more than human. It requires .heroic courage, to '.'make washing day a .weekly Waterloo" without' a hope' of Blucher. ■ Tho: Canterbury '.deputation stated,- what is generally 'felt to : bo'the case, : that'many of the'girls, imported' under the present/haphazard .system" of immigration are-quite unsuited to-dprnestic.'sorvice, and suggested that' •the Government' should send an agent to the United Kingdom and Europe to re-: cruit a proper class of girls for work-in the Dpminion. The employers would do their share by advancing the passage, money of intending immigrants. It is pi'pbahle,-. however, that the Government could accomplish the desired end without sending an agent to Great Britain. The British'Wpmen's Emigration Association, whose aims and methods are described in another .column,< is an institution of the highest'standing which hag already' sent more than one .contingent of girls, under the guardianship of a special matron for $he.voyage, to the 'order of the Napier Ladies' Syndicate, which is coping with the problem in that part of the Dpmin- ; ion. It is stated that these girls, whose passage-'is assisted by tho Government, have proved a very satisfactory typo, and possibly the Government, could come to some arrangement with the Association to select its immigrants for this class., of work. At present the selection is made by the High Commissioner's staff, which apparently knows a good deal less about the requirements of the domestic servant market in New Zealand than the sheepownera of Canterbury and of tho other provinces have had to learn.