A WARNING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 110, 3 February 1919, Page 2

A WARNING

(By a New Zealander in the "Daily Mail.") To those girls who have done so well during the long years of war, and who are now looking forward to a new lile in a hew. country across the seas, a word of warning is necessary. We want men out there, and we want men to bring their wives and families. But the spinster is another problem. Before tlie war women often went out to Australia or New Zealand to marry men of those countries. The first( ton. or twelve months in their new homes have not always been happy ones, it is natural and inevitable. The subtle something that gives contentment in England springs largely from being daily in the midst of thousands of one's fellow-creatures. Transplant an Englishwoman to tho more thinly populated parts of the Dominions and she suffers for a year an infinite loneliness that it needs a brave heart to fight against. For it takes that Ume to develop now tastes and to cultivate that love, of wide, open spaces which is in tho end more stimulating than the call of- the crowded streets. If she goes as a working girl to the larger towns of tho Dominions she will find competition almost as keen as it is in England. When she gets settled in some position sho will find the wages better, the hours shorter, and life generally more pleasant than that to which she has been accustomed. The smart girl will get- on and ' command a good salary. The inefficient will have a bad time, for minimum wages are fixed for all trades, and employers cannot afford to pay those wages to anyone who is not worth the money. Tho girl who is trained in domestic service is sought by a score of niistressos the, first (lay she lands in Australia or New Zealand. Sho will be offered anything from 15s. to 30s. per week and given a freedom of which no domestic servant in England ever dreams. . In due course the majority of t! eso girls will learn the bad habits of their Dominions sisters and demand higher wages, no late dinners, no children in the family they serve, and the right to bo out from seven until eleven o'clock every night, with a free day on Sunday and two half-holidays a week. They will become nomads and move from house to house, feared but welcomed by people who are forced to submit to their tyranny. In time they will bu persuaded to give up domestic duties for the yreater freedom of factory life. Such has been the history of a. majority of these g;ils who havo been brought out in the past by the Immigration Departments. It is not a happy one, but while tho supply is less than the demand domestic scr-] vants will continue to have their day. Finally, let it be remembered that tho flower of Dominions manhood has been away from home for more than four yours. Thousands of women who would have been married hud there been no war are still spinsters. Out of -1(100 marriages of New Zealand men during a certain period only 300 of the wives selected were ,Ncw Zealand women. The tragedy of Dominions women during these years of wijr has been much .jrrt'nter than that of Englishwomen. Englishwomen havo gone on .marrying and I earing children. Dominions marriages hiive been few. Where women from England wore received with a generous hospitality before tho war they will now perhaps meet with a colder welcome.

Mr. and Mrs. Complon Smitli have returned to Havolock iXortli. Ill's. von llaast. in visiting' Havclock ; Noi'tli. Mrs. Hall-Thompson is visiting tho South Island. Mrs. C. Richardson (Sehvyn Terrace) and lief family have, returned to town. Miss M'Lean, principal of the Wellington Girls' College, who has been for a tour of the United. States, is expected to return to Wellington early this month. Miss M'Lean had made aliarrangeincnts to return here during the first week in November, but owing to tho shipping arrangements and -the difficulty in obtaining a passage she iias been delayed far longer than she intended. f ■■ On Saturday evening Mrs. Hcmpton was tho recipient, of a beautiful boiujiiet of carnations «nd roses, presented by the committee' of St. Mary's rebuilding: bazaar. Mr. Scott, on behalf of tho committee, thanked .Mrs. Kenipton for her kindness and energy in arranging the whole of the coronation ceremony. Tho concert was a really excellent one, every item being encored. Signor L. Ccsnroni's Pinging of tho favourite "Star of Evo" ivns particularly enjoyable. The three little girls who did solo dances were Miss Kathleen O'Brien (who took Miss Irene Marsh's Tdncc on the programme), who danced "Tho Dying Swnn"; Miss Florence Ilayward, who appeared in a clever miiit«ry dance; and Miss Cecily 'Ellis, whoso clever toe-dancing 'was, quite a feature of the evening.