The Domestic Problem

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 40, 10 November 1937, Page 7

The Domestic Problem

JIOME-MAKEB.

Sir,— At a meeting in Wellington of the Tcchnic^l Education Association oue member' suggested that the traiuod girls should be callect housekeepers. Is this fair to older women who have had long experience? Then, in other homes, Would husbands agree that the Mother's Help 6hould be called Housokeoper? Is not that the wife's duty? An institutioh where girls and women could b3 trained for domestic duties would bo admirable in many ways, Yet, when they have gone through the conrse and are .eent to homes ,what do they findt Every thiug entirely different. Qften lack of utensils for cooking; method, if any, of managing so utteily different that the young girl finds it almost a hopeless Ua.sk from the startt • There are thousands of well-mamlg-ed horne?j ant^ a^su excellent mistrosses. Those rarely have any difficulty in getting or keeping helps. Aly t.ho snmo, there are thousands of the other sort. Often they have no idesa of what is due to the help or the reasonablo amount of work to be done daily. The help of to-day may be the mistress of to-morrow. lnstead of training domestics, let our Education Committee consider the idea of traij lng mistresses. This should apcciii to ftU .classea of temales. What wiri ot woman, at aouii period of fcer life, has not thought of hopie and iuarriago, which calls for the best? Afe not home and the domestic work it entails the highest of all careers^to be a homc-mhker in the highest p ' Home work to-day is not drudgery with so many labour-saving dovices. Then there is the groat variety, which is sood-for the health. Qne agrees with Dr, Dofis Gordon that the ptesent education system was indirectly responsiblo for the senous domestic servaut problem, -On the other hand, oue questions if it is thP concern of the Government. iney mako no progress with the roale farmlabour shortage. The Government seems to have more work to do than it can accomplish. . Let us get back .to the old adage "The hand that rocks the cradle rules tke world."— Yours, etc.,

Napier, Nov. 9, 1937,