The Domestic Servant Trouble in Australia.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 429, 18 December 1889, Page 6

The Domestic Servant Trouble in Australia.

An Australian lady, in a long letter to the London 'Standard,' gives an account of. the troubles which residents in Australia experience with regard to domestic sorvants ani appeals to the ladies of England for help in the matter. She says : — 'To theladies of England we, the ladies of Australia, appeal for help. Many of us remember more or less regretfully our happy homes and many opportunities for selfculture and benevolent work, and we call upon those we have left behind to lend us a hand of friendship, and to help ua to secure the happiness of our homes in the new country. From nearly all the women in the colonies entrusted with the cares of a household comes the same dismal story in reference to the arrogance and incompetence of the colonial servants. It is a never-failing topic of conversation. Ladies vrho in England contented themselves with one visit in the day to thoir kitchen, find themselves suddenly obliged to undertake the entire cooking for their families, the cook having been hastily got rid of, hopelessly intoxicated. Women whose cultured minds and artbtic; temperaments fit them for a life of refinement and the dedication of their talents to art or literature find their hands tied, their spirits saddened, and their aspirations crushed by a ceaseless round of worry and vexation and wearisome efforts to make up for all the deficiencies of their so-called 'servants.' Never was there such a misnomer. Truly the positions are reversed, and the unlucky mistress (?) knows well that the slightest check to liberty, the gentlest attempt at correction, means instant dopartu re on the part of the- injured dome-tic. The rate of wages alone is enough to make one shudder. The commonest and most ignorant girl will toss her head and turn scornfully away at the timid offer of 10s a week, and a general servant or house and parlour-maid thinks 16s a week at least her lawful right.' One girl fancies she prefers the country, another will not go into the suburbs, another objects to children, till at last the unhappy mistress of a house, wearied with a tiring search through half the registry offices in the town, will feel positively grateful to an incompetent girl who is kind enough to accept her situation and 14s a week. There is a very simple explanation of this state of things. The supply is not equal to the demand. Professional men and thoir wives come out from home by every steamer, but comparatively few of the working classes have either tho means or the enterprise for so lonpja journey. What we want is to bringr over batches of at least 50 or 100 girls at a time — aay, twice a year, for as may be supposed, each small contingent of domestics coming out from Home soon learn to copy the manners of the class with which they mix, and within a few months become as exacting 'and impertinent as the girls around them. Are there no ladies at home who would help to organise a society for sending out supplies of respectable girls on a large scale ?'