HELP IN THE HOME.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 March 1920, Page 6

HELP IN THE HOME.

Tim DOMESTIC PROBLEM. NO SIGN OF IMPROVEMENT. The problem of domestic help for overworked Auckland housewives appears to be as far from settlement as ever and many women who have been taking a vest from the cares of home and family during the holidays are looking forward with little relish to coming back to the wearisome routine of housework, and only one pair of hands to cope with all its demands. Hardest of all perhaps in this respect is the lot of the young mother with three or four children, who is striving to combine the duties of housewife, mother, nook, nuri=e, and often charwoman and laundress, for in many cases it is by no means easy for her to obtain even the latter class of help at a price which comes within her limited income. Sometimes, it is true, one nears ft" vigorous protest from one of the older ( generation >"■ to the "spinelessness'- of young movers nowadays. "Why, when I was <onr age," declared one young pioneer Anther to a young married woman the other day, "I washed and cooked and sewed and mended for inr husband and five little ones, made all my own and my children's clothing, and did the gardening and ran the dairy, too, and none of your modern labor-saving conveniences, either!"

But the age of domestic pioneering appears to have passed, and, without doubt, many young mothers of to-day, not to mention numberless other women in charge of homes, are finding the present dearth of domestic help a heavy and tiring handicap to family life. "So far from the position growing any better, T think it is, if possible, getting rather worse," said the manager of a registrv office. "We are finding it difficult now' even to get girls for hotels and boardinghouscs. although work there has always been much more popular than in private homos. The supplv of domestic help seems to be exhausted, and there are no others to fdl the places of those who marry or otherwise drop out of the ranks." "We are looking forward to better times when the immigration question is settled." remarked another, "and have received scores of inquiries as to whether there is any immediate prospect of getting girls from England. But it seems to me that before this can be done on any large scale provision must be made for liousing the girls when they do come. A eii'l -aid to me she had been paying Lis a week for a room, without, board, while waiting to go to another position; dozens of other girls are similarly placed. I think one of the first thing* that will have to bo done before We can put the question on a bettor 1-asis will he to provide hostels, or accommodation of some kind, where, young women can hoard for n moderate sum when nut of work, or«when changing positions.'* Particular difficulty is experienced by registry offices in finding girls willing to go to homos in th<» country. The farmers' wife in many eases is in sore need or extra help in the home, but for her, as a general rule, there is even less hope of relief than for her sister in the city. "Too slow in the country" was the sum- j ming-up of one authority. "The girls like to be nearer to the 'pictures' and the. shop?, and. as things are at present, ther are fully in a position to make their choice-'"—Auckland TTcrahl.