Original Correspondence.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 129, 25 August 1847, Page 2

Original Correspondence.

To the Editor of the New Zealander. Sir.—- I send you an epitome of my adventures and" ill success in search of a female domestic servant I amongst the recently arrived pensioners. j Ist Applicant was a girl about 18 years of age, who after ccitain preliminary remarks, asked what wages she would receive, and on being told 12/. per annum, she replied that she could not think of taking less than 201. in fact most of her shipm.ites had 25/. and 30/., and she thought of asking the same, at the same time she stated she had never been in service before, she could neither wash, cook, nor iron. 1 of course informed this app.icant that I would try to do without her valuable services. 2nd. With this one I succeeded better, in fact we ultimately came to a decided engagement. On leaving me, I said to her father who was with her, •• well then you will bring your daughter to-morrow;" "the first thing Sir, if I'm alive, but if I'm dead, 1 must ask you to excuse me"— as this occurred some days ago and I have neither seen or heard anything of the man since, I am ltft to infer, although 1 hqpe it is not so, that the poor fellow. is dead. 3rd. In this case, the applicant who was M< years of age was also accompanied by tier father, she certainly was very tall and stout for her age, in fact more like a woman of 2<; than a girl of 14. 1 told her father I proposed to give her from 10/. lo 12/. u year if she were found capable of doing the work required of her ; her father wished me good morning, saying he had just re" fused 14/. a year ior her—it mnst have been as a curiosity for exhibition on acotmut of her sine and age, it could not have been for her qualities as a domestic, for she had never been in service. 4ch. Applicant came to me with her mother who wat spokeswoman, — "I understand Sir, you want a lomale servant ;" " Yes." — " Well Sir, here s a young woman my daughter wants a place"^-"What wages do you ask for ?"— "lt depends upon the work you want her to do" "Oh the general work of a house such as cooking, scrubbing, &c."— "Oh I'm very sorry no wages will do here Sir, I did'nt biing my daughter out to do any thing of that sort, Good morning Sir." Well 1 began to think that this cargo of ladies would soon be wanting servants themselves— when another applicant came. sth. A decent respectable girl, one who suited me well I thought, and she thought the situation would suit her; we agreed on wages too (mirabile dictu) when, (oh 1 this nc plus ultra of objections) she said she had had fits when a child, and she could not get them cured till the priest triade her forswear the eatibg of swine's flesh for seven year?, and as this term was not expired, of course she could not be expected to eat pork while she was in the house. Now as my circumstances only allow me occasionally to indulge in beef and mutton, I told her it she were really determined to persist in the observance of such an unreasonable request, I feared she would not suit me — she simply said she was so determined and left me. You may think it strange that I should interfere so much ill that province of domestic arrangement which ! more paiticularly belongs to the fair sex, but as I live some little distance from town, I have been compelled on this account and others, to seek a female servant (shall I say ?) myself; now Sir, you as well as J have been here some years and we have seen ihe wheel ol fortune as each spoke in rotation came uppermost; some times the times were prosperous, at others they were bad, but thank God we have never known them so bad that an honest industrious man wa» obliged to beg his bread ; do you join with me in advising these newcomers, * our fellow countrymen, to throw aside their silly fangled notions, tell them they must not expect to find New Zealand an El Dorado, nor to find that money is more plentiful or of less value thtm elsewhere— tell them if they have a fair offer made them for their services to acept it at once, aye even though it be not an equivalent for their labour, better do this than be idle, and it will give them time to get information and experience and those are things we all pay for, and some of us pretty dearly too, in all parts of the world- If they try to deal with the natives tell them, they will find that with the natives as with Europeans "honesty is the best policy," and that while they guard against being imposed on, they are not to endeavour to over reach tho natives by any trickeries of trade— tell them the natives are more subtle than they know or think them to be, and if they cheat them, the natives wiil form an opinion so prejudicial to them, (not only of the individual but of the body collectively) that it may cause them much annoyance hereafter ; but above all Sir, bid them put their shoulders to the wheel, for in New Zealand as in all parts of tho world, a man must work to live. I am Sir, Your obedient servant, Pateu Pamiuas.