SMALL WAGES AND LARGE FAMILIES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 1, 26 September 1919, Page 10

SMALL WAGES AND LARGE FAMILIES

PATHETIC CONDITIONS IN SYDNEY "Mv husband is a woolwasher, carninsr £H Cs. a week, out of which Us. is paid for tho rental of a cottage containing two rooms and a kitchen. I l ' have eisht children; the eldest is sixteen and the youngest three years of age." This is a typical extract from statements made nt yesterday's sitting of the Board of Trade when the' inquiry 1 into the cost of living was continued.' Tho president (Mr. Justice Edmunds)- intimated that he had received a communication Irani Mr. S. I'. Dart (secretary of .theHenl Estate Auctioneers and Agents Association) lequcsting iiim to inspect some three hundred houses which were rented from (is. tc 30s. a week. The president ndded'that ho would accept the invitation. The witnesses who made the statements as to small, wages and big families were a number of married women with families ranging from eight to five children. Their husbands were all small wage-earners, and they related tne dilliciilties lrhich they had to face in making ends meet. Dr. Arthur, examined tile witnesses, who, he said, were only willing to give evidence provided their names were not mentioned in the Press. 1 The woolwashor's wife told .the board that three of the children slept in ono of the rooms with herself and husband, two others in the oilier room, and another in the kitchen. They,could not secure another house because; When the agents iound out the number of children in the family they refused to let them into a house. "They either- want a family with one or. two children" or none at all." added the witness. ■It was about twelve years ago since her husband bought a new suit, but occasionally he bought a coat at a second-hand shop. ■•-.-.•-. "Sometimes I get enough money for clothes by doing a little work myself,'" she said. "I got my last d.irt two and a" half years ago on the lay-by .system. As far as the children go tliey have i not even got a second, change, and they have to ko half-naked. I am ashamed of them, but 1 guarantee tliat there is no woman who could do better, 'as' 1' make everything." She had a delicate fourteen-year-old son, who would never be able to. work. Site, too, was a sufferer from neuritis. Sometimes she and her husband had managed to go to a picture show once a week, and the children' about: once every three months. It was' twelve months since they had been to, a'beach. They could not afford to go to .Bondi, Congee, or other seaside resorts. .The money 6pent in fares could be used for better purposes. Her sixteen-year-old daughter worked in the 1 city for 10s. a weeK, but this was practically -monopolised by fares and otner'expenscs. A labourer's wife stilted that she had to pay lis. a week fur a- two-roomed cottage, which had no bath, copper, or tubs. S)io, her husband, and three of the children .slept in one bed and t'uo other three/children' in ■ another, room. Tim children were sometimes fed on bread -soaked in water and then dipped into sugar or syrup. Thcchildren never had meat or eggs, and when they asked for bread and-butter" it often could not bo given- to them. . Treacle' made the mouths of the little . ones ' very sore. They drank tea without milk,. while' fruit was out of the question. A bookkeeper with a family; of eight children only worked ten months in four years through illness. A few months ago liis wife bought him an .fiS 81. suit on time-payment, in order to secure him a positiou in ft city office. They thought the job. would be permanent, but .he received notice: owing to a reduction,-in-the ■staff. A step-daughter, who- was 19 years old, was nn,'mvulid. Other witnesses said that their children had often asked in valu for more to'eat, while the wife and family of a suburban picture show -musician had to depend-ou others for clothes. Mr. Croft, who appeared on behalf of several unions, reviewed the evidence given during the sitings, and said that the effect of a free education in.it .'democratic country like Australia had created a demand for a higher living statldurd.