DOMESTIC SERVICE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3137, 13 March 1909, Page 4

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

In spite of the vast social changes of the last fifty years, too many mistresses, even in our democratic community, persist in the traditional treatment of servants as beings necessarily inferior, indeed of a quite different order to themselves, says the Clutha "leader." Now, girls with character and capacity enough to be worth employment will not consent to be treated from this point of view. It would indeed be hard to show just reason why the domestic worker should be regarded as a social inferior, since the adequate fulfilment of her duties calls for quite as much intelligence as is demanded by most other feminine cailings, whilst good character and goorl manners should be pre-eminently desirable in a worker who is an inmate of the home. The domestic service problem resolves itself into the need for better training for girls of all classes in domestic duties, raising the status of domestic service, and improving its conditions. When radical improvement on these lines is made there will no difficulty in securing a sufficiency of competent household assistant. Even now, many capable young women would prefer domestic work, under reasonable conditions, to the confinement of factory, shop, or office.