RIGHT TO BATH

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 382, 16 June 1928, Page 21

RIGHT TO BATH

SERVANT WINS HER CASE German mistresses of domestic servants have their trials. This was clearly shown recently, when a general servant who had had the impertinence to ask leave to Lise the bathroom appeared in the court which settles disputes between domestic servants and their employers to claim a month’s wages in lieu of notice. The servant told the judge that her master and mistress had a bath once a week, but had refused to let her have one. “When one is cooking and scrubbing and washing up all day,” she said, “one wants a weekly bath. As I could not have one in the flat, I asked to have the money to get one at the public bath. My mistress refused, so as I was determined to have a bath I asked to be allowed to go out once a week for an hour to take one, and said I would pay for it myself. My mistress said it was quite unnecessary, and so I went out without permission. When I came back she dismissed me.” The judge asked the mistress what she had to say. She stated with great emphasis that she did not hold with servants giving themselves airs and demanding luxuries which were unsuitable for their station in life. She was greatly taken aback when the judge gave her a severel ecture on cleanliness and hygiene, and she was highly indignant when he ordered her to pay the servant a month's wages.