BURDENS BORNE BY WOMEN

Chronicle (Levin), 21 June 1946, Page 7

BURDENS BORNE BY WOMEN

Press Association

INTEREST IN TORTHCOMING ELECTION

By Telegraph —

WELLINGTON. Kefetence to. the interest of women in the forthcomiiig general election was made by the president. of the National Party, Mr. W. J. Hira, K.C., in his address at tlie opening- of the annual conferenee of the party. . . •"Tliere has. been. o no election since women reeeived the • franchise, " ■ said Mr. Him, " when they have liad so inueh at stake. With the- acLvance., of . a niateiial -civilisatioxv, the Christian chureh, wliose fundainental tenet ,is the sanctity of Ihe ioldividual - is overshadowed or eciipsed by the new Htate socialism, aiul women begiu to lose ground in the sei'amble for material advantage. In'the East, the picture is a familiar one of the lord* and master riding his donkey witlr his _ wit'fc obediently cafrying her load on foot. behind. In New Zealaud we have rearlied the cairving of baskets and parcels on 'foot over fong distances, and frequentlv up steps and steep hills. Numerous eulogies liave been paid to women workers in the forces and services, and we endorse all tliat lias been said, Init no one iu authoritv that 1 liave lieard seems at all noisy iu his apprecialiou of the women wlio liave bonie, and slill bear, the burdens in the streets or the equally painful burden of making both ends meet in the hoine. " . Holes in the -Bag Women liad a realist ic wav of looking nt tliings, lie continued, and would not l)i deceived by paper prosperi'ty. The question to tliem was not the paper value of Ihe wages, but wliat liad come into llie house in the way o'f food and clot hing. and otlier necessifies. He suggested that for a Friday night text tliev mighl liorrow froni the aneient prophet : " Ve have sown much and bring in littie . . . and lie that earnetli wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes." The National Party was only too aware of tlu; holes in the bag at the preseat nioment, and was giving searc.iiing attenlion to increasing Ihe purchasing power of existing wages by rediicing taxation, by offering every otlier iacentive to the production of more goods; in otlier words, to shajie sub- , slantially the welfare of the eountry, condition ed by the jiresent pressi ng needs of the housewife. Elaborate Siate plamiing and ainbitious schemes were futile as a salvatiou of the racc .wlieu in the jtrocess the jiresent and f n ture mothers of the nation had the life c ruslied out of them. Women coiild : rest- assure'd that 110 big meetings, : vociferous oi- olherwise, were necessary 1 o urge the National Party to do its . plain duty.