A GOWN.OF CLOTH AND VELVET WITH LARGE BLACK SATIN HAT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1166, 17 June 1911, Page 11

A GOWN.OF CLOTH AND VELVET WITH LARGE BLACK SATIN HAT.

inventor cf an anchor that bears his name, and that is known all over the tvorld. Mrs. Barton,' herself, has for ten years .been, a member of the Parish Council of Glasgow, a council which consists of thirty-ono members, and when one takes into consideration the population of Glasgow (a million and a half), that its municipality, probably leads the world in its endeavours to ameliorate the conditions under which those who work in tho great industrial hives live, and that tho planning of the city has been carried out on tho most scientific and modern lines, it is possible to realise something of the work and . responsibilities that such a position entail. Here, in New Zealand, it is difficult to imagine vast areas of a city wholly given up to mills and factories, but in Glasgow that is largely seen. Earlv in the morn ing, streams of women and girls pom along tho streets, many of them coming in from tho country, walking six miles there and six miles back again when their day's toil is ended, and having to rise at four in the morning to reach it. Small wonder that these women. have little time or inclination for the niceties <)f life, or to study the things that are go necessary for women to know if they ire to have homes of their own. , Housekeeping on £1 a Week. To try and remedy this state of things, tho Parish Council formed girls' clubs, where they are taught to cook, to sew, to learn domestic economy, and to dressmake, and r not only are these things taught them, but their minds and bodies, as well. One verj; useful and practical thing which was given tho girls to study and work out was "How to housckeep on £1 a week?" The results were most interesting and entertaining. Another thing for which the council was responsible was an Act of Parliament by which all girls working in shops were to bo provided with chairs. Mrs. Barton thinks that botli at Home and in the colonies the health of the women employees is not sufficiently considered by employers; also that, at any rate in Australia, mothers are, generally speaking, very lax in their care and discipline of theii children. A problem with which tho Glasgow Parish Council arc now grappling is what to do with lads of about eighteen years ot age, too big or too old to do boy's work, and yet who will not apply themselves seriously to the work by which they might maintain themselves. Often in tho alleyways gangs of these youths might be seen playing football or other Barnes iu hours when they ought to be hard at work, and yet not having anything to do and no caring. These later on become the "larrikin" element, and later still tho criminal element. To meet it, the boys are now being taught trades, and in such an industrial city as Glasgow it is a fairly suh way to provide them with work and a living. Citizenship, with its duties, is not taken seriously enough, and much is sacrificed for 6port, thinks Mrs. Barton. Reducing Infant Mortality. Another special care of the council is that of Stato boarded-out children, and Mrs. Barton was particularly anxious to

of which Mrs. Barton was a member, purchased 500,000 acres of land outside the city and set the unemployed to'labour npon it. Tho me;i were kept there, housed, fed, and clothed, while the wives in tho city had their rent paid, and in addition were paid eight shillings a week, and two shillings extra for every child under fourteen years of age. Tho Government, in granting aid, had made it a condition that only men with good records were to bo helped, which made tremendous difficulties. It was impossible to see a wife and six or seven children turned out of their borne, starving, with next to no clothes, having sold tlieni to tho old rag stores to buy bread, and do nothing. Mrs. Barton has immense faith in the healing power of tiie land for both bodv and mind. "Put them upon the land and they become different beings strengthened in body and purified' "in mind. I have seen it," she said emphatically. .