The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Rsurrexi. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1883.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4400, 9 February 1883, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Rsurrexi. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1883.

Complaints are being made throughout the colony of the shortness in the supply of domestic servants, and when the number of the female population is taken into consideration, the cause of it would at first appear rather difficult to ascertain. iln several New Zealand, cities the number of males is smaller than that of the females, and in the ' remainder the difference is not so great as to become remarkable To account for this shortness of supply is not at all impossible. The tendency of the present age is, in many cases, a kind of progress which, paradoxical as it may appear, is undesirable. Progress at all times is to be wished for, but the description now referred to is, it is to be hoped, a sort we will never thoroughly know. The mem* bers of the class from which the supply of househelps is derived are, like their neighbors, ever endeavoring to, as they fondly imagine, reach a step higher in the social scale, and in their attempts to do. so they unwittingly iojure themselves and blight the lives of their offspring. Directly, a girl reaches an age at which it is deemed by her parents she is old enough to learn, and at the same time earn, | something, her parents generally—but sometimes she sees to it herself—cast about for an occupation of a genteel description," such . as running a sewing machine, or lazily , minding a shop, in which to place their daughter, instead of ' allowing the girl to go to employment | that will fit her for the position lin life which she should occupy as a wife and a mother. How many girls are there who get married after.having been iv shops, at sewing machines, or in other such employment; and who, in eooseqaence of their ignorance of household duties, render their , homes anything but what they should be in .the matter of comfort and cleanliness. In addition to the deficiency in. the domestio education of girls so: treated, their lots is also , a pecuniary one. A good general servant can command more wages that the average girls employed in shops. The above case is put, looking at the question from the point of view which should be taken by those 'employed as described. The subject is of serious import to the present and

coming generations, and one which has grown, and is still threatening to attain gigantic proportions. For the sake of employees as well as employers, it is necessary to try and point oat the evils likely to result to the one, and the great trouble and inconvenience to which the other is put, by the foolish action of purenls and girls in the matter. Its importance will be an excuse for a fuller treatment of it in a future issue.