The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-03-03

sewing women In Wellington who live a
the house. get as high as Sc. In othel
places their wages are lower.
Government Employment Bureaus.
1t seems funny to think of a Government
opening offices to give servant girls EN-.
ployment, but this is one of the ways OF
New Zealand. The Premier started 1t some
years ago when he found the employment
agencies We're imposing upon the servant
girls, He told me how 1t happened. Said
he:
Il was connected with the Department
Of Works at the time. I found that the
servant girls were being charged exorbi-
family by the employment agencies and that
they were often sent by the agents to i'm
proper places. 1 started a bureau and fixed
the rules for all such offices. 1 charged the
girls 1 shilling. or 25 cents, for registration.
and that gave them a place. That is the
rate that the employment agencies now
charge throughout the colony. We have a
branch of the labor department which fur
nishes employment for the unemployed. We
find it works fairly WE'LL"
How to Train Your Servant Girls.
looked over the reports Of the Department
of Labor as made by the woman inspector
of factories and the woman who is In charge
| of the woman's branch here at yelling
ton. The latter states that 346 girls have
been given places during the past year.
1t also gives the following points as to
how servants should be treated in order
to make them efficient 1t suggests that
mothers should make domestic work more
attractive to their daughters, and that they
should work with them. 1t advises mis-
tresses to work with their servants some
what as follows:
"a mistress who has but one servant
should work with her during the morning
hours. Under such circumstances a girl
will become very proficient and by this
means domestic matters will move along
on oiled wheels. The mistress who does
nothing to help her servant and is always
hurrying her wears the girl out. 1t is she
who brings domestic service into bad re-
! pute, she who is driving the girls into the
/ factories"
:" find that ervants are becoming moro
scarce every year. Even the old women
who used to be a trouble to the office have
found employment. nearly all of them in
the country. I find that some girls engage
places and then do not go to them. They
perhaps find something better in the mean
while and break their engagements. I
would suggest that the Government provide
fines for such offenses. as they cause great
inconvenience to employers. AS 1t is now
If an employer fails to take a girl after
he has engaged her he has to give her q
weeks pay"
This is the statement Of Helen Stavely,
officer in charge Of the woman's branch Of
the labor department at Wellington.
How Factory Girls Are Treated.
The New Zealand Government has .
woman inspector of factories connected
with its Labor Bureau. This is Margaret
Scott Hawthorne. It is her business to
visit the shops. factories and workrooms
where women are employed and see that
the laws concerning them are carried out. !
The head of the Department of Labor has
given me her last report, from which I |
condense a few statements. She says:
1.-THE question of ~forty-eight hours per |
week is still a matter of bitter complaint. |
In many factories half an hour only is |
half hour off in the middle of the day they
have to work a half hour in the evening to
make up their forty-eight hours per week.
AAAA AAos SAAASA SLAAa 6AAto ~ Gu ia 1
the shops %(stores) work harder thar many
people imagine. A regular hour for closing |
should be adopted. Many of the girls are ,
quite done up at 4 p. m. when tea time
comes, and are not fit for another hour and
q half's work. Some clerks are affected !
the draughts from the doors opening. /
would suggest that in winter swinging
doors be fitted to all shops. I think eight
hours a day is quite long enough for work
in such places"
The factory girls are better protected in
New Zealand than In the United States. |
Take the Southern cotton factories. for In
stance. Many of the employees there work
eleven hours a day. In New Zealand wom-
en- and children are forbidden by law to
put in more than flfty-two hours a week,
and every week must have its half holiday
of Sunday. Nearly all the fac
tories are closed at 1 p. n. Saturday. A
time for dinner is provided by law.
One factory that cut short the dinner hour
was recently fined. Such cases are COM
mon, and wherever discovered are punished
by the government.
Against the Sweat Shops,
The New Zealand Government has laws
against the sweat shops. 1t defines a fac
tory as n place where more than two
hands are employed. and this brings all
kinds Of little shops under the factory
laws. 1t provides that girls shall not work
the factories without wages. It was dis
that some Of the factories or stores
take on girls for the first three
months for nothing, telling them that they
were worth nothing at the start, but that
they would be paid as soon as they became
experienced. At the end Of the three
months they would likely say to the girls
they were worth nothing and could
them no further employment. They
then take on a fresh lot on the same
terms. By the laws IT is now provided that
no employe must be paid less than q GER
sum. and that girls under ID cannot
work in any kind of en- establishment for