de," or what we will; but that does not do anything to
banish it, or to render it less potent for mischief. Seeing that so much
is at stake--that employers are clamouring for servants, and that women
are sadly in want of some occupation which would lessen competition and
raise wages in the sewing business--it is evident that society is deeply
interested in getting rid of the ridiculous notion. As a first step
towards that desirable consummation, let us endeavour to analyse the
impression which exists in the minds of those who turn their backs upon
household duties, and with their eyes open devote themselves to a
laborious and underpaid occupation.

'A correspondent ( _The Argus_, December 16) informs us that observation
and the remarks he has heard made by factory girls have led him to think
that there are three serious objections which the seamstresses have to
domestic service. One of these is--"The idea of degradation, attached to
the position of a 'slavey' in the minds of the lower classes themselves."
As we have seen that there is nothing degrading in the work itself which
servants are called upon to do, how comes it that its performance is
considered less honourable than sewing or serving in a shop? The notion
must take its rise in the conditions under which domestic service is
rendered. The sewing girl or the shop-woman has certain business hours,
outside of which she is as independent as her employer, and as little
amenable to control. The household servant, on the other hand, is under
discipline, and liable to be called on to do this, that, or the other
during every hour of the twenty-four. From the time she gets up in the
morning to the moment she goes to bed at night, she has no hour which of
right she can reckon on as her own. If she wishes to go out she must ask
permission; if she wants to receive a friend, she cannot rely on being
left undisturbed. As a matter of fact, servants in this colony enjoy a
very large measure of liberty, and those who are worth their salt very
seldom have to complain of want of consideration or indulgence. If they
do not meet with proper treatment, they can easily find situations where
more regard is had to their feelings and comfort. But the thought that
the leisure and freedom they enjoy is due in a great measure to favour,
and not to right, is the fly in the ointment of the domestic's lot which
renders it distasteful to many women, and which causes it to be looked
down on by tho