LIFE IN MANITOBA.

Mt Benger Mail, Volume V, Issue 261, 13 December 1884, Page 6

LIFE IN MANITOBA.

A SUGGESTION 7 FOR GIRLS. - ■ During a five-hundred mile drive through; the prairies of Southern Manitoba, sleeping! in farmhouses, and having daily meals with | farm people, I was much struck, says Miss F» Winstone, with the good healthy life there is j in that province for respectable girls. There j is abundant coom for them to grow, mentally, i morally, and physically, into fine, strong j women, instead of the weary, anaemic typai that daily makes one's heart ache in English' cities. It is true that the Colonial openings, are only for domestic service, but it is very j different from the same service in Eog*j land. On the farms of the north-west j of Canada a girl going out as help ; is treated as a daughter. She is at j once made a member of the family,! baring their pleasures and their Borrows, and | working side by side with h«r mistress, she learns thoroughly the internal management "f l farm, and becomes fitted to the wife | of one of the young fanners. This is the usual: result of emigration for girls, as' many young, men are living enforced bachelor lues because ■ there are not enough girls to marry in the; neighborhood. Wages for girls are higher j than in England. A good girl of 17 is able fccij tjet about L2ia year.net*, board, lodging, and washing, of course, being found for her. Emigration should, however, in all cases be ►ystematised. It would be very unwise for any girl to start off to Canada without knowing someone in the country who could find her a suitable and respectable place. There are good and bad mistresses there as elsewhere. But there are many societies which take out nd place girls. The Young Colonists' Aid, Incorporated, assists girls or boys of good character, ami apprentices them or a short term to responsible farmers' wives, who Rre selected by agents in Manitoba. After a short trial to see if girl and mistress agree, the girl is bound by, indenture until eighteen years old. During her apprenticeship two-thirds of her wag's »re paid to the bankers of the Y.C.A., until the. expenses of sending her out have been repaid. The indentures enable the association to have legal control over the girls while they are young and strange to the country. Going, as most of them do, from the care of parents, would not be right to merely find them places and then leave them to shift for themselves. The Association has responsible agents in every district where girls are Bent. There i s also a committee, of ladies in the province, •>ach member ot which undertakes to look after and be friendly with a certain number of girls, to correspond with them, and help them in any case of difficulty. Some of the girh already sent out are proteges of, and have been carefully brought up by. Lady Aberdeen who with the Earl of Aberdeen, the Governor General, takes a deep interest in the organise Lion.