TEMPERANCE.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 216, 18 June 1872, Page 3

TEMPERANCE.

To the Editor of the THAMES GUARDIAN. SIR, —Now that the above subject is demanding so much attention—not only in this province but all over the colonies—l would call your attention to the following paragraph, which I find in a late English paper:— “ Women want better educating to make a man's home a real home, and not to seek pleasure and comfort in the alehouse. Our experience here in this respect is simply this ; not one in fifty is fit, nor half fit, to fill the station ot wife, or perform the duties of a mother. They are lamentably ignorant of needlework, cooking, cleanliness, and housework. Wo have many deserted wives—and after a short acquaintance with their qualifications, we cease to wonder at men leaving such useless, extravagant, and helpless helpmates.” Now if this be true in England, what must it be in the colonies, whero the education and training of young girls is so deficient compared with that of England ? Vet we know that amongst the working classes in Great Britain that young girls at a very early age have to go to some sort of employment—more especially in manufacturing towns, where thousands of them from an early age are employed in factories and warehouses. They are thus deprived of learning anything about housekeeping and general domestic work, nor have they time to acquire it. In hundreds of cases when their work is over they wend their way to the casino, danc-ing-classes, and other places of amusement, to afford themselves relaxation, of which they stand so much in need. The same applies to nearly every town in England. Now, in the colonies, such is not the case. There are very few callings >r occupations to which to put a girl. Yet we find that dancing-classes of a very doubtful character and baneful tendency exist even in our midst. The young girls in this colony should become excellent, housekeepers, and eventually become good wives and mothers, as there is lntle or no excuse for them. As a rule they have thrifty and industrious parents, who have to toil hard to make both ends meet, and I trust that such a charge as that staled in the quotation above will not be laid to the women of New Zealand.—l am, & c , A. Father.