CO-OPERATIVE KITCHENS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 February 1920, Page 6

CO-OPERATIVE KITCHENS.

ADDRESS TO THE WOMEN'S NATIONAL RESERVE.

BY MRS. PAGE, OF HAWERA. A very interesting and instructive address was given before the Dominion Conference of the Women's National Reserve at New Plymouth on Thursday afternoon, by Mrs. R. F. Page, of Hawera, on the matter of co-operative kitchens and laundries. Mrs, Page appeared in an unofficial capacity, and thanked the conference for giving her the opportunity of speaking to the delegates on the question.

The speaker prefacd her remarks by noting that the labor problem was the most discussed and most difficult of all post-war problems, and she proposed to deal with it from the domestic point of view. Women, she said, were having a harder time now than in any preceding period. She quoted from Benjamin Eidd's work on evolution to the effect that the "law of life had been always the same from the beginning—ceaseless and inevitable struggle and competition, selection and rejection, and progress. The conflict was not a page from the past, was taking place to-day all over the world, and more particularly within . .. . the Anglo-Saxon civil-

Isation, of which we are so proud, and Which is associated with all the most worthy ideals of liberty, religion and government that the race has evolved, go far from rivalry and competition in

life diminishing* .... in the future the tendency is for - the stress to be severe and the pace quicker than ever before." 'These general conditions were attracting the attention of thinking people everywhere, who were endeavoring to evolve some scheme for lessening the increasing burden on the already overwrought, and of arresting the impairation of the health and general well-being of women, which is nothing short of a national disaster. This overstrain is reflected in the low birth-rate and the' frequent lack of control by "women of their children. Mrs. Page expressed an opinion that many diseases of women were due to domestic drudgery, and could be prevented if the position was dealt with wisely. * VALUE OF CO-OPERATION. In the opinion of the speaker the hope of tlie consumer lay in co-operative effort, as that would cheapen production by economising in labor, coal, and food, and eliminate waste. At the present time it was almost impossible to get domestic labor in the home. The idea was to cstablisn a co-operative kitchen and laundry, which would be properly staffed in each department, and also have a number of girls who could go out by the day to those who required assistance in their homes: The kitchen would supply, first, a standard dinner of a wholesome kind, consisting of, say, three courses, and supplied at cost price; secondly, a bill of fare for those who were prepared to pay for something a little more elaborate than the standard meal; these would be delivered hot by means of the fireless cooker apparatus. The establishment would be subject to inspection, and it was suggested that the good cooking would be an improvement on much that is served under present conditions in many homes. Provision could also be made for the exchange of vegetables, eggs and butter, etc., produced by people in their own gardens. SOLVING DOMESTIC PROBLEM. The institution would be run entirely on co-operative lines, as every other co-operative undertaking is run. The scheme also includes provision for rebates to shareholders in the event of profits accruing on the working of the scheme. Mrs. Page has based her calculations on the needs of, say, fifty average families. Twelve of a stall' in a co-oper-ative kitchen-laundry :auld easily cook and wash for that number, whereas, if twelve domestic, servants went into as many homes that would be tne extent of the general benefit their labor would afford, and there would always be the tentency for them to drift away into the larger centres, while under such a scheme as Mrs. Page is advocating they would have a good home and congenial conditions in which to work, and the inducement to leave for the larger centres would be largely eliminated. Without taking into account the better position in regard to buying that such a concern would be in as compared with individual families, or the large wastage which would be eliminated in the wholesale cooking and laundry work, Mrs. Page was able to show a reasonable expectation of a profitable undertaking.

In laying the matter 'before the Women's National Reserve, the speaker sought their co-operation in bringing the matter before their districts, and also in inducing the Government to advance cheap money for the establishment of such institutions. Once established, the scheme is capable of development in many directions, and is at least an honest and .practical suggestion in the direction of solving the domestic labor problems, and of assisting to reduce the cost of living. A committee is already working in this direction in Hawera, and moves in the same direction have been made in Wellington, Wairarapa and Christchurch. The delegates expressed very great pleasure at having had the scheme placed before them so lucidly by Mrs. Page, and assured her of their practical interest and assistance in the matter.