LIFE OF LABORER'S WIFE.

Clutha Leader, Volume XL, Issue 43, 28 November 1913, Page 1

LIFE OF LABORER'S WIFE.

HOW ENDS ARE MADE TO MEET. A "COST UK LIVINC STORY. A witness in tiie iii.iu.vt.riiil Courl in Sydney, during Mr Justice Heydon's Cost of Living inquiry, tokl, as the result of a question and, answer, a story that throws .sonic light upon the way laborers' latnilio-i live, ami' how their womenfolk make both ends meet. It was asked that the. names, ot these wonien should not. Ih* luentionecl, hut the one who told the story wa.s the wile <,f a Svdiiev boilermaker's assistant. She had 'been requested to keep a li.-t of her expenses for some weeU, and now she was being questioned as to tlio details of lmr list. She ,aid .slu« bought a tin () f sardine* of threeneiice worth of cheese now and again. The children got tired of having alway.s the one kind of lood. Thev said they didn't like ii. Thev would not eat it ; they'd leave iron the table. She iis'd half a i>ouik! () f lea a week. Was it enough? Weil, thev made it enough. Noiiii'ti'incN the children had a. glass of milk in.s-tcad of tea. Sln« didn't believe in siring them too much tea; it. wasn't good for them. She got about a dozen eggs a week; hut when eggs were dear .she used custard powder. Thev never ate any eggs, outvd* ot pudding, and so on: they cost too much lor thai. Even when 'they were « shilling a dozen, meat went fiirtlici She had thought a good deal. aUmt her system of housekeeping : smiie time ag<> when her hu, s l>au<i was out ot work" a lot, she had to. And ever .since then she had followed the ,same methods, '""Ugli times were belter , M \\. lint her husband got. out of work stillwhenever it rained. He was a boilermaker's assistant; he wole-il outside. Ot course, when he bad mi money to bring home they .still lived; hut' sh« had to work herself. None o't the eiiildren were the wors<\ but it was verv hard on her. Certainly thev had .sometimes to go with less food than. sh« thought enough. She had three children, one 13, ono 9, «nd one 0' years old. there was another item of -Hd for dates. She only got dates once" in a while. They ueie lor a pudding. Sh« could have had currants, she admitted, for a halfpenny less. There were other things, too, that had to be bought every two or three weeks, something would be wanted for the house ■ blacklead, perhaps, or oil, or a snubbing brush! Tliti oil was tor polishing Hours. That meant a lot more work, hup sh<> didn't mind work, ami it preserved the oilcloth, and made the iloors look nrueli nicer. The, linoleum in the iront room bad lasted for six years and seven months, because of oiling it, of course, that room wasn't used a great deal, She hadn't much money to spare; ik had taken her a year and two month* to save 10s. But since, keeping those returns they had had a little extra, ' She hud earned more—she had beun washing for 4s n day and did som<* needlework--and in tiio last iovtnipjljo thc ( boy that was 13 had been earning a little, Ih did a \n\[m run before hi* wont to school j ho yot up at iivo o'clock in the morning Sh e wan puy« oil' i'ov soiuo t'uniiivtrc ami doihiiitf I by instalments.