MRS. GRACE NEIL INTERVIEWED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 458, 17 March 1909, Page 3

MRS. GRACE NEIL INTERVIEWED.

I f HER. AMERICAN EXPERIENCES. ■ Mrs. Grace. Neil, formerly an inspector under, the Hospitals and Charitable Aid Act, who went to live with her son in America some years ago, has returned to New Zealand. In conversation with a "Lyttelton Times interviewer, she said that sho spent 'most of the time in Montana.. That State, it appears, shares one problem with New Zealand/and Australia. The domestic help difficulty is as great thero as it is here. The genius of the American nation, however, is asserting itself in this direction; many inventions are brought forward.to save labour in the house. Electric appliances' are installed in all welUequipped homes) and nearly every house that can claim, to be supplied with modern conveniences, for instance, has electric irons and electric washing machines. Hot air is supplied from a central plant through mains, and is turned on by means of a register in the same way as gas is turned on to nouses in New Zealand.

Thero aro ■■shoe-shining establishment; vhere boots are'cleaned by electricity. Tl automatic telephono is in high demand, an it has abolished the telephone girl. A su! scriber can connect direct with the house ( a friend-without-going through the formalit and often the delay and annoyance of ringin up the '"change." The only occasion whe an intermediary is ncoded is when there is hitch, and things are not working smoothh .Then "No. 93 trouble" is called up, the ns turo of tho hitch is explained, and "trouble 1 sends a man along to put things right agair The "Information Bureau" •is attached t tho system. Amongst America's modern dt vices, is the subscriber interested in the re suit of a big ■ football match, an athleti championship; a horse race, or a Presidentia election, or does he. wish to know the timo o arrival or departure of a train? Ho ring up the bureau, and tho information, if it i within tho bounds of reasonableness, is sup plied at once. The domestic-help difficulty is drivin; many families, in America to livo in apart ment houses. Suites of rooms are hired, anc the families live there, , surrounded by al tho conveniences tliat human ingenuity cai devise. Li'ono:.appartmont house, in Buttc there are fifty or sixty families, holding suites ranging from two rooms to five oi six. Helps : 'demand good wages, and have no"iroublo. in getting', them.' '■•In.'" ono instance in Pasadena girls did mot come forward when as much as £8 or £10 a month was offered.them.. ■ • , -. . Mrs. Neil's interviewer'said'that the "InfoTmation Bureau" must bo a great boon tc the newspaper offices, which would bo relieved from scores of-'telephone calls,' and the remark brought to her mind a story ol the newspapers published in Montana. Before tho American Fleet came to New Zealand she wrote, to the editor of tho "Butte Miner" stating that she had pictures' oi Now Zealand, and offered to' give thorn to liim, together with some information- about the country, for publication when the fleet reached these shores..'Tho editor did not reply, but when the ' "Miner" announced that the fleet had,come to.this Dominion it published its own:pictures.of, New-Zealand. 'They represented' a "few "small '• reed houses, erected on poles .several feet from tho ground. It was stated that these were the houses of New Zealand -fishermen. Mrs. Neil was overwhelmed., with tho absurdity of this stupendous ;attenipt to portray tho cities of New Zealand. - Sho assumes that tho editor's geographical education had been neglected, and that he :had mado tho simple error of mistaking New. Zealand for New Guinea or '.somo other savage country. She received 'several other shocks while sho was in. America. In Mr. Upton Sinclair's - recent historical work, for instance, she read that Now Zealand had been founded by-convict , colonists, -which acepunted for tho democratic resistance to tyranny in New Zealand../She'wrote to the author pointing out his mistake, and received a courteous letter from hist secretary a short timo afterwards. However? she saw later that Mr. GoldwiiV Smith had made tho same extraordinary statement in tho "Cosmopolitan."