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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2138, 10 June 1920, Page 4

The economic independence of women is being urged in many directions, and is becoming one of the special subjects of the day. A writer in the Leader {[notes a Jotter she Ims received from a woman who is feeling the situation nearly intolerable. She had a good-sized family and suffered much in health through motherhood. In her early married days (here was a struggle to make ends meet, and she seconded .her husband’s efforts in every way possible. “Now,” says the writer, “the struggle is over —for him; but he finds no reason for easing things for his wife, and even the children have to work beyond their strength. The wife remarks that she has never known, since she married, what it was to have £1 to do what she liked with, and has come to the conclusion that the only way to meet suchcases, which are common enough, is to have a law whereby the wife is paid for the work she does at home.” She concluded by urging the National Council of "Women to support such an economic measure with the utmost vigour. The fact is that there are both wasteful wives and stingy husbands. Perhaps .a fair suggestion would be that a man must allocate so much of his income to his wife, but that he cannot be held responsible for her personal debts if she is proved to be a selfish, extravagant woman.