To anyone with a taste for dressmaking we undoubtedly recommend the business. We receive intimations continually of good openings for women to establish themselves as dressmakers. We will reply to “Stoke’s” numerous questions in their order. In two years a girl ought to be able to obtain a fair all-round knowledge of dressmaking; but she must be careful to insist on being taught the work of each department, as in some firms there is a tendency to keep a girl at one kind of work only. An outdoor apprentice is not usually asked to pay a premium, but is expected to give services for some little time. The length of this period of free service varies greatly, as much according to the custom of the firm as the ability of the young dressmaker. In any case the outdoor apprentice is not likely to receive more than a shilling or two a week during any portion of the first year. What she would receive at the end of two years is most difficult to foretell, so much depending on the amount of aptitude she had developed in the meantime. The average wages of employees in London dressmaking businesses are, resident fitters, £40 to £100 a year; experienced bodice-hands, 16s. to 20s. a week; ordinary bodice-hands, 12s. to 15s. a week; assistants, 8s. to 10s.; skirt-hands, 8s. to 18s. It is probable that she would have to begin as an improver at 8s. A fashionable and well-paying firm in the West End that is known to us pays its out-workers 11s. to 18s. a week. The maximum fee to indoor hands is £2. Dressmakers’ hours are regulated by the Factories and Workshops Act. The regular day, that is to say, is one of twelve hours, including meal-times. A good deal of overtime is unfortunately worked during the season. An apprentice, whether paying a premium or not, would be expected to work these hours; but it is possible she might be excused the overtime, if special conditions to that effect were made at the time of engagement. We do not happen to be able to recommend a firm of dressmakers in Brighton. _EMIGRATION.—“Will the Australian Agents-General be sending out any more girls from this country to Australia this year, on the same terms as last year? I am a general servant, getting £20 a year. Could I do better in Australia? Do they treat their servants better out there than here? I do not like service, but am very fond of housework and do not mind what I do. Would you recommend the Cape or Canada in preference to Australia? I think many of us girls complain and grumble when we ought to emigrate instead._ “A WOULD-BE EMIGRANT.”