WOMEN WORKERS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 876, 23 July 1910, Page 11

WOMEN WORKERS.

A DEPARTMENTAL REPORT. The Women's Employment branches ot the Labour Department continue to do exceptionally good work (etates the annual report of tho Department, presented to Parliament yesterday). For the tweivu months ending March 31, 1910, they have found employment for 2791 women and girls, mostly in domestic service. Th« persons assisted included 571 married women and 2220 single women. Of the whole number, 1335 were from the North Island, 1164 from, the South Island, 51 from Australia, 239 from Great Britain, and two from miscellaneous parts. Sincu the establishment of these branches 5406 women have been assisted. Considering tho difficulty ul securing domestio servants, the fact that such a large number was engaged during the year appears to be very satisfactory. The weekly wages offered to suitable girls gets higher as the domand grows keener, and in any of the chief centres of the Dominion competent domestics can obtain situations at from 16s. to «£1 per week. On reference to , the reports from the officers Hi charge of these branches it will be noticed that thein is 'fitill a desiro on tuo part of the girls to take employment where the hours and pay have been fixed by awards of tho .Arbitration Court. Thero is no doubt that much of the dislike (o domestic work is due to the micertaiu hours and irregular holiday periods. At the Wellington Women's Bureau, 1438 applications were received from employers an|l 1304 from women workers. Tho engagements totalled 795, but, excluding those assisted inoro than oncu, there were actually 748 persons who were found employment.through tho agency of tho office, or an average of 62 per month. This monthly average, of 62 just equals the nnmber dealt, with during the samo p»riod for tho year 1908-9. Although it is somewhnt disappointing thnt an increasing average cannot be reported, it must be borne in raind'that the tendency iR for domestic labour to get scarcer and scarcer as time goes on, and tho problem grows more r.omplcx and more difficult of solution from day to day. It is not nnuaual for the number of employers (■•Peking domestics to outnumber tho girls uttering by eight to one. Applicants still favour employment governed by an award of the Arbitration Court, for the reason that the pny, linnrs, and overtime rates are clearly, defined. .

If domestic service could be piacixl on some such system whereby tho conditions of employment wero made more definite, it would tend, the officer iu ohargu of the bureau (Miss Bremner) believes, to attract many more girls to take' it up. Employers are rather inclined to urge upon the Department both in and out of season the advisability of bringing girls from the Old Country in shiploads to meet their needs. It should be remembered, however, that the domestic seiv rant question is becoming juat as difficult a problem in the Old Land as it is in this Dominion, and good and capable girls thero can command ready situations. "In my opinion," writes Hiss Bremner, "the girls are available in New Zealand, and.the remedy lies with employers themselves. It _is not unusual tot- some girls to stay in one place for years, simply for the reason that the conditions of employment am! pay are fair and reasonable j and 'f, as I have already suggested, some systematic scheme could be propounded by which the girls would receive reasonable conditions of employment, and the promise of an annual holiday, much of the aversion now expressed against the work would be removed."