LIFE IN CANADA.
Mrs Blackwood (nee Miss Spedding, of Auckland), who recently returned to her native city, was interviewed >by a Star representative on life in Canada, where she has been living.
Asked how the women of Canada impressed her when she went amongst tliem as a stranger from this part "of the Empire, Mrs Mack wood laughed and said that they were very similar to the women of New Zealand. They took a keen interest in public affairs and were excellent housekeepers. During the war they did all they could, although she found nut thai, a scheme like the Dominion gift scheme was not possible to Canada because the railways were privately owned, and there was not that supply of food materials that there was in New Zealand. Western Canada, where she was, did not produce food studs like Now Zealand. So the wfeh to send parcels lo the-boys at the front was not encouraged by the authorities. They took up the attitude that the Government would do all that was possible for the comfort ofdlie men. So the women threw all their energies into Keel Cross work. Y.M.C.A. work and the Salvation Army activities The Star representative asked what was the help problem in Canada. It. is as bad ns here, said Mrs Blackwood, only the houses are arranged to save labor to a, greater extent. Before the war .lapanese and Chinese labor was employed, but now, because of the increase in the fisheries, tlie c men are being absorbed by tdiat industry, and help is becoming scarcer.
The women are assisted a si-cat deal by having electricity at command, which is used for cooking purposes. It only cosis a penny half-peiinv a kilowat for this purpose, but is a little dearer for lighting. Tlie houses are also arranged to save a great deal of labor, cv'erv house having its centra! heating arrangements, which do away with the trouble of coal-burning grates, .and all the dirty work (hoy occasion. The Canadian women do a Int. of canning, or, as we call it. bottling, both of fruit, vegetable and fish. They use a speeia' form of iar for preservius fish, and thus the housewife has n continuous supply of foods in stock to fall back upon during the winter months. House-work is much easier in Vancouver than in Auckland because of the labor-saving appliances in use. The central heat in:* is done by the furnace, which is only stoked twice a day. morning and evening. .Again in Vancouver, because of the frequency of paved roads, there is very little dust. It is possible to go awav fnr a couple of days and find, on return, thai; because of the clean streets and l.ick of wind, that the house is as free from dust, as before the housewife left, instead of resembling I lie garden paths as they do hero after a wind.
During the summer a great deal of Hie people's life is spent o".t of doors owing fo the long twilights of Ihat lath tilde, and also helped hv Hie HnTliiflil Saving Pill. Many families make" n practice of'taking their principal mral of the dav on the beach. There avi' cooking stoves erected, and fireplaces all along the beach'. Along the heaeli thcic are rows of motor-cars drawn up. while (lie people have liieir meals in the open and spend the time in the fresh nir. They relurn home in Ihe twilight l )(1 . tiveen 10 and 11 o'clock at night'. The slimmer in Driiish Columbia is described hv Mrs Blackwood as bcincr delightful in every n-.iy. hut the winter as" cold and wet, but not much colder than 'he climate of Tnvoroargil], for instance. Tn the winter there is a. hi? influx of visitors tn the towns, who come in from the prairies. Alaska and Yukon, to escape the terrible cnld when the temperature hen-ins to go down to thirty and more below 7ero.
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Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1920, Page 9
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657LIFE IN CANADA. Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1920, Page 9
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