PLIGHT OF THE HOUSEWIFE IN BRITAIN

Chronicle (Levin), 25 June 1947, Page 4

PLIGHT OF THE HOUSEWIFE IN BRITAIN

COMPLICATING FACTOBS SEEN "Monotony iS the hardest part of the food Situation .which the housewife in Britain faces toddy, but' there ,are othef complicatihg factors of Which WSf in New Ze'a- . land* have no conception." ffhis comment Was made hy Mr. R. H. Billens, of Palmerston North, speaking on Monday night to members of the' Levin Rotary Clhb and their wives about his receht trip to the Homeland as chairmun of the New Ze&lafid dfelegation to the Kmpir'e pre'ss conference. Onfe of these was housing,. pfoceefi^d Mr. Billens, but it was not th^jsafne problem which existed in NewVZealan'd. Hundreds of thousands of five and six storey buildings, homes of the upper middle class in the da-ys when servaflts were not at a premium, were : apartment houses today. The hou'seWife on the upper floors had to go down flights of stairs for fite or six storeys, stand in a queue for anything from half an hour to ah hour td buy her vegetables, fish dr meat, and then return to her apartment and cliriib the staijs. Coriveniences were poor and if the housewife wished to db h'er Washing she had to go down the stairs :to-the basement. This complicated system on top of the dreadful monotony of the food supply was a severn drain on the nervous system and health of the housewife. 'Mr. Billens told of a parcel containing a tin of fidney, a tin df tongues and several cakes of soap he had taken to the studio-flat of Lawrence IrVing, the very wellknown personality in the theafre world, and how gratefully it had been feceived by Mrs. Irving. 'Tf you had seen her face you would realisd just what these parcdls mean td the' people of England," lie added. "They are extremdly wealthy people, but it was like a parcel of gold. If you could only see the joy a parcel gives the recipient you would see that as many as possible are sent, and do your utmost in this regard."