NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1758, 24 May 1913, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

If they would only realise it, the demand for domestic assistants which so greatly exceeds the supply, opens up a very fine field for exploitation by those girls who nowadays appear to prefer factory work and typewriting _ and other nondomestic occupations. As domestic employees they can choose their employers, and insist upon reasonable conditions both as regards treatment and pay, and, generally speaking, be far Getter off than they arc as factory hands and tho like. In spite of the importations from Eng: land, the cry for help continues from many a household in town and country. It is tho same in Australia. A few' days ago nearly a hundred Indies attended the Melbourne Immigration Bureau to capture the girls who arrived by one of the Home steamers. Expectant mistresses actually rushed the new arrivals quite regardless of tho regulation that they must produce vouchers showing that they had been officially selected from the numerous applicants for servants. Those

who had do vouchers were refused admission, and in vain they appealed to tho lift-boy to let them in; but he was adamant. Efforts wore even made to tempt those who had been engaged to change mistresses for an extra half-crown a week. The position does not appear to be Quito as bad as this in New Zealand, but with the great demand for domestics in Canada and Australia, it is doubtful whether New Zealand can depend on getting an adequate number from abroad. In any case something ought to bo done to supply our needs to a larger extent from within our own borders. As we have already stated, our methods of educating girls require reconsideration. "Housewife" suggested in our correspondence columns the other day that the status of domestic labour should be raised, and girls should go through a course of teaching that will fit them for home duties. These are, of course, sound lines to work on: why not organise a movement in this direction? Can-' not some, of the women's political organisations take the matter up ?

The atmosphere of deep gloom which continues to shroud some of the Opposition journals just now is enlivened now and then l)y a glcani of unconscious humour'which should cheer the Government on its road to the purgatory which its much-de-prcssed critics are prophesying for it. The weird financial calculations of the local anti-Reform journal in particular must provide opportunity for a little quiet amusement even on the dullest day. Its discoveries really are so original and, amazing. For instance, the latest crime of the Government is that it has been breaking up the large estates. This used to be a sound plank in J- 11 ®' eral" policy, but in tho hands of the Reform Government it has suddenly become or decayed, or something of the kind. It used to be a very fine thing a year or two ago to displace sheep with human beings, and settle the broad' acres of the despised "squatter" with happy families of farm folk. To-day, however, fearful and wonderful financial calculations are prepared to show that the policy of the Government is carrying the country to the "demnition dogs" or in some similar direction. It is indeed instructive to read that during tho last fortnight Mb. Massey must have "run through" between £300,000 and £400,000 in breaking up, large holdings into small; and it is still more enlightening —if horrifying to learn that this expenditure has , addecl £13,500 a year "to the taxation of the people." We, with the rest of the community, had been under the impression that the Land for Settlements scheme cost the taxpayers nothing; that the interest on the money expended was paid by the settlers who took up the land' purchased for closer settlement. But the wizardry of the financial genius of tho local anti-Reform journal—wo prefer to treat it as wizardry rather than dishonesty—rises superior to such commonplace things as plain facts and simple arithmetic. This persistent and unnecessary perversion of fact, which can only be based on a belief that the public is as ignorant as the paner itself pretends -to bo, is a pathetically stupid method of political warfare. It discounts itself.