THE UNIVERSAL WANT

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1252, 7 October 1911, Page 10

THE UNIVERSAL WANT

RAISING THE STATUS. The domestic help problem in Auckland appears to bo very acute. Whether i(; is more so that in tho other cities is rather difficult to tell. Iu twelvo montlis, at tho Auckland branch of tho Labour Department, there wero 23£) applications from employers and only 893 from women desiring employment. Of this number G9l wero placed in suitable positions. Am analysis of thoso figures indicated that 777 "generals" were applied for, and that only HI women offered themselves fur this particular work. On being asksd for nil explunation uf tho position, Miss Morrison (tho officer in .charge .at■ the Women's Employment. Bureau in Auckland) has stated that there was a particular dislike on tho part of women to take to this branth of employment owing to the fact that they were generally expected to be on duty for very long hours, which wero longer than in other occupations. Also, it was felt that the position of "general" ranked as" the lower rungs of the ladder in domestic work. Tho cure, no.doubt, lay to a certain extontwith the mistress by raising the position of tho domestic worker in her house, and-by inculcating an idea of the dignity of domestic work. As each year passed, tho supply of domestics became more and more acuto. Shorter hoilrs and better conditions had been adopted ui other branches of women's work within recent years, and women could not ho oxnected to take to domestio work as a livefikood until better conditions prevailed. It had to l>o reiuonibered, too, that the girl of 20 years ago was of a different trpo to tho girl of to-day. Education had wrong-lit the difference. Domestic service, to become acceptttblo to young women, would have raised to a higher level, aud tho teaching ■of domestic economy in our present,clhicat'ional system would no doubt tend' to raise the status of domestic work to tho dignity of skilled labour. Why should not the same courtesy tl» young woman bookkeeper and typiste by designating her as "Miss Smith" or "Miss J ones," "bo extended to the domestic, wheso services wero at least as important as that of a clerk? ■

Of tho 893 women for whom positions wcro found during the year, 2U3 wero housemaids aud waitresses, 141 wero generals, MO cooks, S3 housekeepers, and 67 charwomen.

A French doctor, M. V. Fischer, advocates a complete reversal oi' tho present method of making-url bods. Yon must have your head on a level with, or lower than, your feet. If pillows are to bo used they must Iμ under the feet instead of the head, The result, he claims, will bo amazing, being a sure cure for insomnia as well as a preventive of nightmare. . ■, • . ■ There has been such a rush to buy tho chairs that tho peers and peeresses sat on at the Coronation in Westminster Abbev that tho Oilico of Works could have sold three times as many chairs asr.woro actually in use. Each 'chair- that was sat ou by a member of tho nobility was bold for- 30s.