Colonial domestic advice framed adult servants as children in all but age, to be handled kindly but with total firmness. That framing licensed fixed rules, punishment of every first fault, and even dosing with castor oil, explaining a failure to learn as a bodily defect rather than a problem of instruction.
The book holds that staff reflect whoever directs them: an untidy mistress gets untidy servants and a weak one gets idle servants. Constant scolding and fussy supervision are taken as signs of bad management, not good, because firm, clear standards should make friction unnecessary.
Newcomers were told to judge each local servant's duties against those of the English equivalent, so they could see where a fault lay. Kitchens were likewise expected to reproduce English dishes, so local practice registered as a deviation from the home standard rather than as a system of its own.
The manual treats running a colonial home as the same task as governing a colony: neither can be held peacefully without dignity and prestige. Domestic order becomes a small-scale rehearsal of the authority claimed over a whole country.
Being able to give orders that are understood is treated as the mistress's first duty. So the manual insists she learn the servants' language herself, rather than relying on go-betweens or staying away from the work she oversees.