HELPING WOMEN IN THE HOME

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23975, 16 June 1943, Page 2

HELPING WOMEN IN THE HOME

A STATE SERVICE SUGGESTED MISS HOWARD’S PLEA From Our Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, June 15. The establishment of a home service corps under the Social Security scheme to assist women in their homes was urged by Miss M. B. Howard (Govern, ment, Christchurch East) in her Budget speech in the House of Representatives this evening. She referred to a suggestion by the Women’s Institutes of Mid-Canterbury that such a corps should be included in the Government's rehabilitation plans. Miss Howard mentioned the difficulty of getting help on farms, and said that with the burdens they were bearing some of the country women were among the real heroes of the war. She hoped that the Government would introduce legislation providing a service to help in homes in sickness, after confinements, and when people could not help themselves. She believed that it should be a State service, and have a staff of civil servants. If those who were helped could pay, they should pay, and the money should go ‘into the Social Security Fund. She said that in a letter she had received from the Mid-Canterbury Institutes it was suggested that the scheme would serve to attract women in the services back to home life when the war was oyer, as well as helping women in the homes. New Zealand had led the world in social security. She hoped it would lead in this service too. A conference was to be held in Christchurch to-morrow, and she hoped that after it a New Zealand conference would be called to discuss the proposal. • •