Member Of Standards Council States Case For Uniformity

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 8, 19 December 1947, Page 5

Member Of Standards Council States Case For Uniformity

Of the Dominion’s total production of consumer goods marketed in New Zealand, 80 per cent was purchased by women, said Mrs H. JBarnicoat, a member of the Standards Council. From this fact came women’s interests in standards for consumer goods. What they wanted was some sort of certification by which to assess the actual worth of the goods desired and to make their choice accordingly. \ With Mrs Barnicoat, Mrs M. J. Forde, J.P., and Mrs P. Jordan were recently appointed members of the Standards- Council in Wellington. \ The chaos existing at present inr the sizing of women’s and children’s clothing in general was referred to by Mrs Barnicoat. As things Were, a Woman might be several different sizes, according to the particular manufacturers’ markings on the garment she bought. A case was instanced where a woman purchased from three different stores three singlets, marked 5, S.W. and O.S. respectively—all of which fitted her perfectly. Mrs Barnicoat further illustrated the vexed matter of sizing disparities in garments by exhibiting various items of women’s underclothing, those marked O.S. being actually smaller than women’s size.

In a move to remedy this state of affairs a committee of all • interested parties, orthopaedic specialists, Plunket Society, and manufacturers, retailers and women’s associations, was recently constituted under sponsorship of the Standards Institute to get to the root of the trouble and remedy it. It was hoped to solve the problem by evolving an adequate number of standard basic lasts, to be duduced from a survey now being conducted on the feet of 5000 New Zealand children. Women’s organisations had representatives on all Standards Institute committees. These covered a multiplicity of goods dealing with commodity standards from household tinware and footwear to children’s outerwear" sizes, carpet sweepers and milk bottle tops. The standard mark was to quality •what a yardstick was to length or a pair of scales to weight.-Mrs Barnicoat felt that it should be made clear that “standardisation” was not “regimentation”—two very different things. “We are hopeful, however, that all this annoying confusion will be eliminated by the issue of standard, specifications,” she said. For some time there had been a feeling among women taking larger fittings that they had not been catered for. A specification for underwear sizes was now being crafted by an appropriate committee of the New , Zealand Standards Institute and all women’s . organisations, as well as the manufacturers and retailers, . w’ere represented on the committee. The quality *and sizing of footwear, particularly children’s was another subject women’s organisations were watching closely. AH over the country came corn plaints from mothers about the crippling of children’s feet by ill-fitting footwear.