DOMESTIC HELP.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1920, Page 6

DOMESTIC HELP.

SHORTAGE IN TAKANAKI. WHAT SCHOOLS ARE DOING. Housewives in Taranaki in need of help have, for the most part, despaired of getting any response to their enquiries through, various channels, and the outlook of the market for this class of labor is very discouraging. "There are absolutely no girls offering," the proprietor of a New Plymouth bureau yesterday told a Daily News representative, and he added that people have practically given up enquiring now. as they seldom secure a domestic.

The probability of relief being afforded by girl immigrants from England is doubtful, at any rate in the near future, for from present indications the new arrivals do not seek domestic duties, but drift into other avenues of employment. The Registry Manager cited the case sf a niarrled couple who came to the Dominion with 1 b idea of going into service, and were offered a position on a farm at £l5O per year, but the husband has preferred to take employment in town. Up to the present a small number of immigrants have come to Taranaki. The first girls to come out to New Zealand under the new scheme to take up domestic work arrived recently at Auckland, but these were quickly absorbed there.

Decently opinions have been expressed from various quarters that more should be done by the schools to turn out domestic assistants. This matter was referred to the Director of Technical Education for Taranaki (Mr. A. L. Moore) by the reporter.. Mr. Moore said that under present conditions of domestic employment the product of secondary schools would not enter domestic service. Something would have to •be done to elevate this work to the status of a profession, and in the direction of treating the employees with more deference. might make conditions more to the liking of school trainees.

Speaking of the work that is done in the schools, Mr. Moore stated that the course that is adopted for the primary pupils ie a very practical one. They are taught the principles of cookery, and, without going into scientific tferms, a general idea is given of food values and substitutes. The girls practice very largely at home, and often a pupil is able to relieve her mother of the cookery work on ai Saturday. In this connection a number of parents have expressed appreciation of the work being done in the schools. At the Technical j School the course is even :more practical. The girls are taught to conk dinner for a certain number of people, and work out the cost and food values. The courses comprise cookery and domestic science, home nursing, dressmaking, and needle work, laundry work, and home management. For girls who take the commercial course, domestic science is ir;ide a compulsory subject.

It will be seen that the scope of, this instruction is a. very wide one, and should be the means of imparting practical knowledge to <he girls. It is doubtful, however, whether the product of secondary schools will ever be a factor in relieving the shortage of domestic help. i