IMMIGRANT MAIDS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 481, 14 April 1909, Page 3

IMMIGRANT MAIDS.

Y'TWO SIDES TO EVERY QUESTION." A correspondent writes: — I read wjth interest "Domestic's" letter in your issue of April 13, but I cannot say that I agreo with it. There aro always two sides to every question; and if they lived in the country people would not talk of tho supply being, equal to the demand. It is not the mistress who can afford to keep two or thTee that it falls b.ardest on, but the one who has to be, content with one (iio matter how much she does herself) that the shoo pinches. ■, , Say, for example, you lose yoiir girl after, a peaceful interval. What happens? You may advertise, you may interview all the registry offices in town, the cry is always tho,same—"Generals will not como to the country; it is too dull." It may bo weeks, and generally is, before you hear of another, and sho probably disappoints you at the last minute. In the meantime you are left with three small children, ono baby ir, arms, and all the work to do, and this, let me tell you, is 'a very different thing to work in town. The bread has to be made, the butter churned, washing, and the cooking (and you aro lucky if you are not lett with two men to cook/for in' the kitchen). Taking into consideration the broken rest you get with a baby, it only takes about a fortnight of this sort of thing to reduce you to a nervous wreck. But there is no rest—you must keep goin", though your only wish is to be allowed to go to bed and die. This isn't an extreme case, it happens again and again. Then why, if the girls in tho Dominion are not willing to leave tho towns for the country (and there is no reason why they should), should they want to prevent girls coining into 'the country who aro wil'hng and content to do so? As to wages, we aro already, as far as I can gather, piyi'ig higher wages thair either Australia or E-'-land.—l am, etc., ° "COUNTRY,"