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266 which has troublesome features in many other countries as well as in New Zealand.

"The gentleman who wanted to be our host, but just then couldn't, told us that there was a great scarcity of house-servants in the colony, and he thought Christchurch was a little worse off than any other city, though he was not at all sure about it. Very often it is impossible to get maid-servants at any price, and those that can be obtained demand high wages, and are independent to a degree that would not be tolerated in England. A discharge has no terrors for a cook or house-maid who knows that a dozen places are open to her; and when she consents to take a place she can be sure of four dollars a week and her board, with at least two evenings out in a week, and sometimes three. Many of the well-to-do colonists had tried the experiment of importing maid-servants from England, but found the speculation a bad one, as the girls generally left service in a few months to get married. Their passage had been paid to New Zealand, and with matrimony in view, they laughed at any idea of working out the time for which they had agreed.

"He further told us that in many houses the mistress was obliged to do all her own work with the aid of her daughters, if she had any; and this, too, where they were perfectly willing and able to hire servants.

"Doctor Bronson told him the story of the man in San Francisco who was trying to hire a maid-servant that declined the situation on account of his three children. 'I will not go into a family where there is more than one child,' was her ultimatum. Whereupon the gentleman said, 'We can easily fix that, I think.'

"'How so?" she asked.