THREE SOLUTIONS OF THE SERVANT PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 118, 9 May 1908, Page 3

THREE SOLUTIONS OF THE SERVANT PROBLEM.

BY (JEIJ'/BRATED FE.MIMM-; u AUTllomUliS. ;; .Miss Kbu iiumumi JJIXOX. I (Di-diuguished a ti a novelist, journalist {, mul traveller. Was for fcsomc time editor of the " EiiglUltoman,'' and is 011 the council of the Women's institute.) " In a free country like Britain, where indoor domestic service is becoming i every year more unpopular, and the ' aim oi every Hoard School youngster--boy and girl—ij to become an independI ent individual, with leisure to spend their evenings in their own fashion, it is not surprising that there is an alarming shortage of cooks and parlourmaids, of nurses, scuilery-maiils, ami " tweenies." In the United States, no white woi man born in America will go out as a servant, and an American man-serviiii! is unthinkable. It is not that the American woman is lazy or ignorant o-' domestic ad'airs. On tiie contrary, -lie will do the work of two English servants but it must be her own work ai: ; , in her own house. Th(i extraordinary growth of mauu faetures in the two Anglo-Saxon cou:i trie* is, of course, at the bottom of the shortage, anil it is ipiite evident ilia: we c-hall soon have to follow the example oi our western kinsmen, ami fall back on coloured servants, black, chocolate, or yellow. 11l ten years' time we may see our registry odiees liiled with exotic servants waiting for places. John Chinaman, who, by all accounts, makes an admirable cook, butler, latliiilry-iiiau. ami even nursemaid, will probably head' the procession in numbers. Hiss EISA D'BSTEKRE. (Founder and principal of the wellknown '■ Simple Life School. Chelsea,'' where the students (ladies), in addition to literary studies, receive systematic instruction in the lighter I forms of housework,). ° Obviously the servant problem is going to end in women becoming their own cooks while men and women continue to have a liking for cooked food, and, since every woman can learn to cook, this will lie no tragic outcome of the existing state of allairs, J n the meantime there is apparently 110 immediate fear of a dearth of governesses arising, therefore a good governess should be procurable for every household in need of one.

Ihe strong position is, of course, that ot the woman who is sulticieutlv learned and accomplished to superintend U" education of her children, and siitiiciently domestic to undertake the ma mi;-, ineut of he r house, and that by im V iictive presence in the kitchen no less than in any other part ot' hn- ho.a.-. This capable woman will tind no ililliculty in -ccuring ollicial aid. whether m the kitchen or in the sclioolrooin. Siuis not at the mercy of servant,; or oi governesses, i have put mvseli' in her position as the head of a'house with girls at home (I refer to the resident students here), girl* keeping np their studies and helping in the management of a house iu winch there uv e no hired handmaids.

" RITA." (Who, apart irom her brilliant novels, a wide following as a fearless and trenchant critic oi modern life and manners.) II the vexed question of domestic service is not solved soon, we shall be confronted by the necessity of seli'-iielo. Jh the colonies, the mistress of thj limine lias generally to do most—it' notall—uf the work, in America the -help ' so-called is u.-ually a hindrance, and only extravagant wages and almost unlimited lilKTlv will induce- servants to take situations in the States. The same trouble is threatening Kngland, thanks to a which preaches the false doctrine ol equality and a. system of education, the main elleet of which h to make young people discontented, and to unlit I hem for any useful work. Those who work should be taught, not that work is inoignily, hut that it is a duty. Not that service is a degradation, but that, rightly understood, it is ail honour and a pleasure. Women are constantly clamouring for work. Well, there i-, a grand liehl open More them. Let- them combine and lorm a National Training School for Servants.

They must be taken in hand young. r lhey must be educated iu such branches J of household labour as they prefer, or for which they show especial talent. I Some girls are bom cooks. The majority have cooking thrust upon them, and very badly they do it. Some have a natural instinct for the dainty work of sewing, or cleaning glass and china, or minding young children. If each girl were trained to fulfil her natural instincts, encouraged, praised, and considered, we hould hear no more of these, complaints as to inellicieney and insuiliordinatioi). But- modern education treats children as machines, to b<> drilled and ordered and formed into • ne shape. Since women h ,e been on the Education Board the complaints as to domestic service have increased instead of

diminished. There is the other side--girls refuse to go into servi. ,< not because it is derogatory, but because mistresses are mostly tyrjnts. and h;iv, : neither the patience lior the capability to train girls and develop the real material, instead of abusing and miscalling it. When women complain to me of the inefficiency of servants, 1 ask them have they ever tried to find out the bent or talentof any -peca'al domestic? Have they tried a little judicious praise or encouragement instead of fault-finding. Have they ever thought of the wear/, depressing routine to which 1 a servant is condemned, and then asked themselves how they would like the sweeping, dusting, washing, cooking, cleaning, mending that mean the labour of each cheerless, drudging da-y? 1 There will he no good servants until there arc capable and charitable mistresses, who have studied their own sex as efl'eetually as tlrey have abused and I opposed and interfered with—the other.