The Daily Gazette

Servant Girls at the Antipodes.

From the Pall Mall Gazette.

The young women who emigrate to Sydney find no difficulty in obtaining situations as domestic servants, but are eagerly snapped up on their arrival in the Colony. It is, therefore, not surprising to hear that they give themselves airs, and are not indifferent to their worth and importance, receiving with the utmost caution offers made to them. Being well posted up in the rates ruling in the domestic labor market of the Colony as supplied to them by their agents at home, they seem, says the Sydney Morning Herald, to have entered into a compact to demand the highest wages procurable, together with such privileges as are most dear to people of their class. Ladies who seek them, expecting a pecuniary bargain, are in no small degree astonished when a girl, whose qualifications for their service they have been ascertaining by a lengthy and skillful cross-examination, modestly demands 16s. a week as wages. It is of no use to point out to her that the terms demanded are very high, and the best servants are not getting more than 10s. or 12s. a week. There are the labor lists, the accuracy of which is indisputable; and if the lady will not come to terms she has to give up all hopes of obtaining that particular "help."

Of course, all are not so extravagant in their demands, and by judicious representations and ensnaring promises, such as that of unrestricted liberty on Sunday, an eligible investment may be made for 12s. a week.