HOME-MAKING.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 June 1924, Page 4

HOME-MAKING.

A -MORE EXCELLENT WAY. (By -Muybunke Anderson). In the folk lore of many countries wo may read the story of the man who sent his sons to seek for a great treasure. They sallied forth, wandered far and wide, and after many adventures returned to find the treasure bcsaii? their own hearthstone. For centuries man has wandered tar and wide, seeking the treasure —the glimmering light—by which he could train his children to virtue, and show them the primary values of life. He lms sought in cathedrals and in conventicles, in temples and mosques, hut m all these opinions vary, and even in me holiest places disputes dim the light. He seeks in universities and schools, in places where learning is at home, but in every one the teacher is busy, and only a few will help him in his quest. Discouraged, he turns to punishment, and tries by floggings and hangings, in loek-ups and gaols, to • turn the criminal from his foolishness, ■ and to reform the vicious. But in vain! ’Wickedness slants unchallenged I in hign places, and even little children l ho and steal. Not hv the churches as ’ they are, nor by learning, nor by the ■ fear of punishment can the children of > men be trained to virtue. i Where, then, shall the sons of man > seek? Despite many disappointments, - some of them, cherishing an ideal ol' f good, still hope, and sometimes believe, r that the human race, slowly making its . way through the long ages, will etiu-

tiuttiilly advance from its low estate, striving upward to a lilo of nobler i*otivit.v, kindlier manners, wiser purposes, more reasonable love. But discouragement waits on effort ! Only one hope ivnuuiis. Like the wandering sons who returned to seek tit Imme the treasure they could not fiud abroad, we may perhaps find it by our own hearthstone. Owing to the long subjection of woman, human progress in thought and act has been almost outirelv restricted to the rule of man. For ages woman hardly dared to formulate her opinion, and oven now progress is modi tied by sex. In religion and education the rule of mao still prevails. These are the two great makers of character. In both the ideas and manners of the cloister still guide the man, and it may be that their failure to make the world tt better place i> in the fact, that they both came almost exclusively through the minds ol men. From time immemorial mao litis supposed, or acted as It he supposed, that physical ability to bear si child involved not only sufficient knowledge to care wisely for its health ot body, but also ability to train it to walk in Lite way Hint it should go. and woman lists accepted the supposition. But till thinking women know now that few, if any, of their sisters are so gifted. Every mother, unless she is :ilinorm;d, loves her baby. Site shares with the animal and the bird that mother love which loads her to nourish and protect her offspring. But more thssis this is needed if humanity is ever to he raised to si life higher than tlssst of the animal. Exjierts discovered, years ago. that the schoolmaster must he trained for his business, and xve now carefully prepare men and women for the work of impairing knowledge. But the woman, the first and most persistent teacher, the one person on whom husband and children depend, not only lor health of body, manners, and morals, ideals, and examples, we leave to tumble tit her work, and do the best she can.

JGXORANT .MOTHERS. The consequences lie all around us. i Our children’s hospitals are never large [ enough. Very few babies are horn to ■ die. hut our babies die in hundreds, ■ Killed by ignorance or poverty, or both. We spend money lavishly on organisn- ■ tions, clinics, and the like to help , ignorant mothers, hut the most ignorant ol till often go to them too laic. • It would he more effectual, and less expensive, to teach every girl how to ; take care of a baby, and the greater ' number would instinctively lind the lessens more interesting than many they are now obliged to listen to. What of the husbands of the nn- * taught women !- The moral well-being of a home and a people depends largely on bodily health, which in its i essence depends on nourishing food. . The ill-fed man seeks refuge from the discomforts of his stomach in strong I, drink, and tries to satisfy the desires .j of an ailing mind in the gambling- '{ house or <m the racecourse. Ilis con- | d\iel reacts on the home. Hence poverty and misery! The millions which wo spend oil hospitals and asylums, and . the uncountable amount squandered on . medicine, patent or otherwise, 'would he better spent on teaching every woman to do her natural work wisely and systematically, in accordance with . all that mind and body demand. The , 1 consequences would he twofold. Not ! only would liie nation gain in health | ami morals, hut home-work would be ino longer drudgery, for it would | gradually take its rightful place among the noblest of till employments. If we turn from consideration ol bodily health to think of moral health we must admit that here also there is great need for training. We know hv daily experience that at the .present time, in every trade and calling, wo have reason to suspect moral perversity. From the small dealer who hide* the rotten snot in his apples to the manitfaei uror who loads his calico with ‘•dress." and, unless the law proven la him, sneaks of that which is adulterated as pure, in every grade and calling we meet with unfair dealing and deceit. Not only the poor and struggling lie—for them we might find some excuse—hut many rich men continually and habitually deceive, and us we grow to adult life, we realise that only the simpleton believes exactly wluit lie is told. As tor what is commonly called I lie "working class," we are so accustomed to he cheated that we take it as a matter of course, unless we employ a man 'who has proved himself honest, that we shall not get a full day's work for a full day's pay. SCIENCE OK HOUSEKEEPING. Though most of ns still, as Bruno said, "think with the multitude because it is the multitude,” the few are beginning to see that girls ought to know something about the science of housekeeping and home-making. Some of our State schools give lessons in cooking, and we have a school for domestic teaching. All excellent as lar as they go. But they do mot go tar enough. The teaching is not .compulsory, and therefore those who need it most escape it, and every girl ought to Is? taught tit least the rudiments of every subject included in her vocation as woman. This training would not in any way resemble the "vocational training" of the hoy, which experts in education so positively decry. For the I woman's vocation is not hers hv choice, it is her natural work bestowed on her. m the unremembered past, by the great Lord of all. She must pass on the torch of life, or the race will perish. ; She must train her children, and if we neglect to teach her how to do her work wisely and well Nemesis will wait on our neglect. Our gaols and children's courts are even now her remind-

ers of our carelessness. Many a woman who lives always on the edge of poverty would gladly save her children from the contamination of the mean street, and the public-house at the corner. She knows that it Is mainly from her class thoso will be drawn who step by step will pass easily

down tlie weary road to vice and misery, and she woultl gladly teach them if she could. We might tell her something of the power of suggestion, and the inevitable habit of imitation. Me might tell her that every child begins hie with the inherited instincts of his savage forefathers, and teach her how to guide him to use these aright. We teaeh her French. Site sees her husband restless and unsatisfied, trying to increase his substance by gambling, and stilling his discontent at the nearest drinking shop. We might tell hei bow even a poor dwelling may lie made a home, and teaeh her to translonn hers. We teaeh her mathematics, lloth useful as training of the intelligence, hut not so valuable that they should erowd from the long list of school subjects those she needs most for her natural work as home-maker, wife and mother.

Wo rightly oiler to those of our girls who desire it and will profit by it “higher education,” and many of those who receive it use their trained intelligence, and become excellent homemakers and mothers, lint however useful and desirable the “higher” may he, it is not the “highest” education. On the woman who sits beside the liealthstone liillsl largely depend tin l health ami beauty of the race, slie must, whether she will or no, decide as well as slip can whether her children shall he noble or ignoble, true or talsc, virtuous or vicious, and the highest education must be that which would place lirsl. and lead her to place first, the duty she owes to her children, her conntrv, and her God.