Servant Girls in Ireland.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3397, 11 November 1879, Page 2

Servant Girls in Ireland.

Female servants in New Zealand may feel interested to learn how some of their fellows are treated in the Emerald Isle. An Irish paper gives the following in its ordinary report of a meeting of Guardians of the Poor, under the somewhat Irish title of " A Female • Oliver Twist;' "— Surah Kirmcy, aged seventy years, appeared before the Board, her story being that her grand daughter had been hired by the Board with a man named William Smyth, (Jrunnagh. What brings me here, she said, w:s because, from what the child told me, she had got a bad situation. I wont over there on Tuesday last, and spoketo her mistress about her. She told me the girl was not badly treated, and that she bad no cause of complaint against her. The little girl came out along with me; but her mistress was not willing. The little girl showed me her legs; and I then saw that there was blood flowing from a wound at the ankle—that thero was a running sore there. I asked the mistress what had caused the wounds, and she said " she is a little slow," and that she 11 had brightened her up."—(Laughter.) Mr Morrow : Where do you live ? Mrs Kinney : In Knockintern. Mr llezlett: Were the injuries you say the girl received caused by her mistress ?

Mr Kinney : Yes; the little girl said her mistress raised her clothes and beat her with a stick; and, besides, she was half-staived. When she was set down to her dinner of Indian meal porridt-e in a pot, the mistress opened the kitchen door and let in the fowls, and they picked it all so that the little girl got none.

Mr Hezlett: This seems a very strange case —I know both the man and his wife, and I can scai-cety believe either would be capable of conduct of the kind attributed to them.

Mr Ellis: Would your granddaughter, Mrs Kinney, prefer the Workhouse to her p'laco as a servant outside? Mrs Kinney: She would get her food there.

Mr Ellis: Yes ; and have nothing to do.

The Chairman: We shall have the case looked into. You may now go. Mrs Kinuey: It is a very hard case, when the girl has neither father nor mother, that she should not be looked after by somebody. The applicant having left the Boardroom,

The Chairman said the matter should be referred to the Guardian of the Division, to make enquiries, and report. Mr Hezlett: It is not convenient for farmers at this season to go through the country, and neglect their own proper business, The Believing Officer is the party to look after cases of the kind. Mr Ellis said the father of the girl lives

in Coleraine.

After some conversation,

The Chairman, with the concurrence of the Board, ruled that the Believiug Officer should go to the residence of the girl's master, and report to next meeting.