OUR NEED TO-DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1731, 23 April 1913, Page 2

OUR NEED TO-DAY.

PATH OUT OF DIFFICULTY. [Br Imogen-.] It would be a very great boon to women of tho Dominion generally if such a Bchemo as tho ono instituted in Berlin eome two years ago could bo started here. When not even 255. a week will obtain servants for tho couu'try the condition of affairs iu that respect seems hopeless. Even immigration so far seema to have dons little to make things better, as tho complaint now appears to bo that so many of tho girls brought out to this country becomo lost—shall wo say?— through matrimony. A .stop in the right direction, ono would imagine, is limit, suggested by tho Society for the Protection of 'Women, when it ptissed a resolution inviting l all societies interested in homo and civic life to join in requesting the trustees of tho Jlacarthy Fund to set aside a. sufficient sum to establish a chair of domestic scienco at Victoria College for tho middle district of New Zealand. If that should bo done, much alleviation of a. great distress may be obtained. To return to fho Berlin scheme, however. The city has an institution, founded about two years ago by a woman. Tho object of itlie "Sister School," as it is called, is to train w:ell-educated girls for domestic service. The students are generally daughters of professional men, and tlio curriculum comprises' cookery, housework, tlio caro of children, and needlework. When application is mado for the'services of a "sister," tho matron, or soino other woman connected with tho school, calls upon tho applicant, forms an opinion of the "situation," and arranges terms. Each "sister" must bo allowed a free afternoon every week, one Sunday every other week from four' o'clock, and a fortnight's holiday in tho 3'ear. Six weeks' notice is required 611 each part. The salaries paid range from 7.50 dollars to 12.50 dollars a month, with, of course, board and lodging. Sisters wear a brown uniform, nro treated as social equals, aro not required to tako meals with other servants, and aro addressed as "Sister Marie," "Sister Hodwig," etc. The demand for their services is so great that the head of. tlio Sister School declares that she could place 1500 girls a year, instead of 50, and similar institutions are about to be established in other German towns. The Germans, practical people that they are, aro also considering tho matter of making it compulsory for ovcry girl to spend at least a year in homo training at schools and colleges, the training to includo domestic science, home nursing, and tho care of infants. With compulsory military, training for its men and compulsory training for its future women in all homo matters, tho outlook for tho 'well-being of tho country should be extremely good. ■ .