DOMESTIC HELP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 50, 1 March 1939, Page 2

DOMESTIC HELP

GIRLS FROM BRITAIN. ARRANGEMENTS POSSIBLE. The readiness of her organisation to arrange for the despatch of domestics to New Zealand was mentioned in an interview on Saturday by Miss E. M. Thompson, C.8.E., chairman of the Society for the Overseas Settlement of British Women, who arrived at Auckland by the Mataroa. She will spend a short period in New Zealand before going to Australia to discuss the immigration of English girls into the Commonwealth. If there was a shortage of domestics in New Zealand, said Miss Thompson, and satisfactory arrangements could be made for their reception and employment, her society would be pleased to see what relief it could afford. Although it would not necessarily depend upon a number of circumstances and conditions, at a guess she would say she could supply the Dominion with 200 girls in 12 months. Good Conditions Expected. “In any case, there would not be the shoals of immigrants there were in the years immediately after the war.” said Miss Thompson. "They would come out in tens and not in hundreds. Then again .the position of domestics in England is so much better than it used to be. For one thing the girls are better educated and expect more than they once did. The benefits of Great Britain’s social services are hard to relinquish, too, unless the country to which they go can offer them commensurate advantages.” Miss Thompson said, however, the English girls were quite ready to come to the Dominions if treated fairly. In fact, they were sometimes ready to accept what they might refuse in England, merely for, the sake of having a change of scene. But any scheme to send domestics to New Zealand would have to be done thoroughly and through proper channels. Her society would have to know what homes the girls were going to and what scale of wages would be paid, and it would also require the assurance that the girls sent would be placged in good employment if for any reason the women asking for them were unable by the time they arrived to take them. New Zealand’s Popularity. If New Zealand did want domestics and suitable arrangements could be made for their entry under the assisted passage scheme, she had no doubt that a upply would be availI able. She had been surprised to find in the past that New Zealand was the most popular country with girls seeking employment in the Dominions. Quite frequently they would express their preference for New Zealand, and it was obvious that it had a very good only domestics, but also typists, shop assistants and so on, who were ready name among the young women, not to settle overseas.

Last year, said Miss Thompson, her society had sent 100 girls, domestics, typists, shop assistants and other workers, to South Africa, and in the short time arrangements had been in force with Australian organisations about 500 girls had gone there.