ON EMIGRATING AS DOMESTIC SERVANTS TO NEW ZEALAND
By E.B.S.
( The Girls Own Paper, October 4, 1884)
"Domestic servants wanted, such as cooks, nurses, housemaids, general servants, and dairymaids, to whom free passages to New Zealand will be granted &c., is the commencement of an advertisement, under the heading of "Situations Vacant," which at present appears daily in the newspapers.
The fear of not getting a situation, dread of the voyage, and the erroneous ideas that clothes are exorbitant and work too hard in the Antipodes, keeps many, who have no ties here, or those who have pluck to break from such, from bettering their condition by emigrating, for they need not tarry if the above-named causes alone deter them from setting off to the bright new land. Long before their steamer (most of the New Zealand emigrants are sent by steamship) has arrived, eager mistresses will have written to the agent offering places to the coming servants.
Wages range from £25, £30, up to £50 a year. Ten shillings a week is what an ignorant, untaught girl commands, and any servant, more especially one fresh from the old country, with a character and experience, will earn £35 to £40 as easily as she does £16 to £18 at home. In town an efficient cook will be offered a £50 a year.
Clothes are very little dearer than in England. Hats, dresses, boots, and unmade stuffs are much the same; but frilling, gloves, and small accessories are higher, but not exorbitant.
I do not think work is harder. There are fewer contrivances to save labour; no hot and cold water pipes laid on, fewer cooking utensils, cruder stoves and ovens than in Britain, but there are no stairs, and halls are a scarce commodity. So, weighing one thing against another, work will be found much the same as at home. Owing to the high rate of wages, a much smaller staff of servants are kept in Colonial households, and in consequence a maid's work is more general. A cook will be required to do washing and baking, and a housemaid will be tablemaid too. To make up for the lack of servants, the mistresses take part in the housework. They assist to make the beds, trim the lamps, dust the drawing-room, and help the cook forward in her work for dinner. If the master or mistress want anything, they go for it themselves. Bells are seldom rung, for Antipodean employers are considerate, and saving of giving trouble. Servants have as much leisure time to devote to sewing and mending as at home, for people in the Antipodes lead simpler lives, and, as a rule, dine early. If the maids have broken the neck of the day's work in the morning, in well ordered households they have their evenings to spend as they like.
I would recommend up-country - or bush-life, as it is also called it - to any girl fresh from home. Wages in the bush are higher. New Zealand maidens prefer towns, and it is difficult to get a servant to go up-country.
A station (sheep farm) situation is sure to please an English girl, from its very strangeness. The maids at a squatter's (sheep farmer's) homestead are far from shops and town amusements but a concert in the nearest township (village), a dance at some selector's ( small freehold farmers), varies the monotony of bush-life for what are called "the ladies in the kitchen". The cook, housemaid, and nurse of a New Zealand friend of mine, instead of spending an orthodox afternoon out, as town servants do, used to ask for a few hours' holiday and for horses. Leave being granted, the trio mounted and cantered cheerily away, their mistress, meanwhile, keeping house and looking after the children. Colonial, and more especially up-country, mistresses, are, as you will see from the above riding episode, willing to allow their servants to partake of any gaiety or recreation within their power; but expect, in return, when a stress of work comes, that the handmaidens will face it ungrudgingly. An emergency may happen by the cook decamping. Then the housemaid must be her substitute, and help her mistress till another comes. Perhaps half-a-dozen guests may ride up, without warning, and the servants must not grumble at the extra labour they entail.
In the bush, a church may be too far to attend regularly, but mostly every township has one, and, at any rate, travelling clergymen hold service, from time to time, at outlying stations. In Otago (South Island) the greater proportion of the population being Scotch, Presbyterian churches abound.
On a run (another name for a station) there is a "hut," where dwell the "hands," viz., shepherds, ploughmen, rabbiters, and, during the wool harvest, a regiment of shearers. However plain of feature a lass may be, when in service at a squatter's she is certain of receiving several offers of marriage from steady men, whose wages, including their food, begin at £50 per annum and range from that up to £80 or £100.
The climate of New Zealand is very healthy, and is very much like a greatly improved edition of home. In the South Island it is cold in May, June, and July; but snow, except in the mountains, seldom lies, and roses and geraniums flower outside throughout the whole year. Summer is not over hot, but like a long continuance of a perfect day in June in England.
The North Island is much warmer, and altogether it has an ideal climate, never too cold, and never uncomfortably high in temperature. Otago (South Island) is rugged and mountainous. The scenery and people are very Scotch; so, to anyone coming from the north of the Tweed, it is a pleasant province from its very likeness to home.
Owing to the dearth of servants, who marry and leave their mistresses disconsolate, the New Zealand Government offer to frank girls from any town in this country out to the brighter Britain. All that is required of them is to have characters for honesty and sobriety from their two last employers and their minister. Their ship outfit, in regard to bedding, is also free; so a girl can voyage out to the Antipodes without one penny of expense. Steamers take forty-five days, and sailing ships double that time. Once the first few days of seasickness are over, the passage, be it made under steam or sail, will be found wonderfully pleasant, for everyone settles down into a leisurely monotony, and passengers oftener than not regret that the time passes so swiftly.
For the voyage out by steamer a girl would need six weeks' stock of underclothes; and, if by sailing ship, double the quantity, as no washing is done on board. Three weeks of the time will be in hot latitudes, and the other three in cold. Every sensible person on board wears their oldest clothes - one warm gown and one of print are all the dresses required. A thick petticoat, woollen stockings, a woollen comforter, flannels and an ulster are needful. A shady hat, and one devoid of feathers, fit for rough weather, is all that is wanted for headgear. Boots used on shipboard, owing to the rolling, are apt to go over at the heels, and it is well to keep out only a pair of worn ones, over which goloshes may be drawn when the decks are damp, and have a pair of stout house shoes as well. A few pockets, with tacks to nail them up with, are most necessary for tidiness and comfort. They can be made of any scraps of linen or print. There should be one to hold brush, comb, hairpins, looking glass, and pin cushion; and another pouch into which a book or sewing can be dropped. Remember there are no chairs or tables in a cabin, therefore everything careers about when the ship rolls. Four are usually in a cabin, but those who pay £70 passage money are no better off as to space. The emigrants are well looked after, and their quarters cleanly, well aired, and well supervised.
If an emigrant would like to pass a most luxurious time on the sea, let her add to her kit a folding-up cane chair, such as her richer shipmates aft lay out ten shillings on, for use on deck.
For wear, in New Zealand, a servant needs exactly the same outfit as she had for service in the old country. She will have her trunk brought up from the hold during the voyage at intervals, and on the last luggage day could extract from her kit a better dress to land in. A wooden box is as serviceable as any, if strong, and a carpet-bag will do best for the cabin.
Out in the colonies, if a maid will dress as she did when in service at home, clothes will cost her no more; but Antipodean servants often fritter away all their high wages on tawdry finery and jewellery.
Hawkers, every few months, visit stations with a van load of every conceivable article of dress. They have a well-stocked shop packed on four wheels and driven by a team of bullocks. Their prices are those of country shopkeepers in England, and, owing to them, a girl in service up country has plenty of opportunity to renew her wardrobe.
I can vouch for this much. If any servant, energetic and steady, goes out to the colonies she will never repent it. During a lengthy visit to the Antipodes I never met with one who regretted having emigrated.
If a girl will make up her plain morning dresses herself, and avoid spending money on useless finery out of her yearly £35 or £40, she ought to be able to spare a £10 note to send to the old folks at home. Likely, she will try to persuade them, or at any rate, some brothers or sisters, to bid England "farewell for evermore," and set sail for the fairest and southernmost of our colonies, where all the necessities of life are cheap and only labour is dear.