Domestic Servants and their Mistresses.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1923, 5 November 1906, Page 3

Domestic Servants and their Mistresses.

Mrs Ta'-ker, who has always been to the front in the Women’s Lcoguo and generally in Liberal politics, baa euuocedsd in forming a Domestic Workers’ Union in Wellington. It is true that the union is not an imorians body at present, and thst many of the better class of domestic servants are inclined to neat is B 3 a joke. But its promoters are oon* CdenS that its numbers will grow, and that is will or.c day become a power in the land. Me Barclay, M.H.lv. for Dune tin North, lies tom lending a helping hand in eomaoo'nn with ihis new fledgling, and at a meeting of the union, some twenty domestic workers being present,_ he held fjith cn tbo advantages of unionism. Ho said fco did not consider the position if the domestic worker was what if should be. It could bo improved in many point’. Domestic servants very often went into u houso where they were to a largo extent prisoners, Tney rot out only to go home or to visit vjinds on rare occasions, and such a

Ibirg a? a haif-boliday wm very rare. Ther, again, Sho social position of tbe domestic wo; bar was not tueb'as is should be. Their sleeping quarters were generally small br.ok rooms, sod tbe domestic was not treated ns a gicl wbo was doing useful and honorable work should bs treated. When tho shop girl went to a pkoo of business she was called “ MBs ” Brown, or whatever her name might br. But no*, ao the domestio, wbo wan called plain “ Mary -Jano ” or “ Polly Ann.” Farther, tho shop assistant had her regular hours and a weekly half-holiday, and was treated by most employers as a youcg lady should bo treated. It was not generally remembered that tbs domestic worker performed duties exactly the same as the mistress or her daughters would have to I do if they did not have a domestic). It 1 yvas konorabioj necessary work, Tho

f ' * > - IfMiJl/l term " servant ” mu never applied to men’s work, and be thought it objootionablo as applied to domestic wot leers. lie considered the most appropriate name that could be used wan "bouao asni-dauts,” whioh wan a dignih d term, explaining the exact position occupied, liouso assistants should certainly bn treated no leas rn--peoifiilly than tho girl assistants in tin

shops wove treated. Ho was of opinion that their status should bn improved, and pbn-i'd on a, level with tlml, of nurses. As he had said befoi'e, duiiiostie servants engaged in honorable, useful, neeessai-y work. Whal- exeusc eould lie found for mil placing them on the same social plane as nurses or young lady shop nssisi.mils ? Referring to the hums worked, tln-.- peaker remarked Unit, if his information was correct, some of the hours were very long lie hud a letter from a domestic servant who got up at 6 o'clock in the winter and earlier in the summer, and continued

without it break until nine o’clock at night It surely should not he necessary to drag out the work of a house from (i a.m. lo 9 p.m. An effort, should be made to fix the hours of Work, So long as the house assistants were not united, so long would they have to labor under tlio disadvantages which existed. To gain then end they must c imimm. There were somo places iu which glide found tbomselvL-a wot king under cnidi I liana which oou-d only bo regarded as little clao than white tl-very. In Nmv Zealand they had a judicial tribunal before which - hoy could bring their case and it would he duly considered ami a decision given upon the auhj'CL Mrs Ta ke- infonm-d the moating that ,lie p o-p cs i f obtaining an award from

the court wore br’ght. At present, t.ho a-till, it was not tbo intootion uf tho union to endeavor to oito every omrdoyer, They were simply goiog to got twonty or thirty together, and if everybody did not eomo to terms in a proper logal way, they must be brought into line. Tho present ,vas a most favorable time to form a union, owing to tho scarcity of demostio servants,