MIDDLE-CLASS WOMEN AND HOUSEWORK.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 434, 13 February 1875, Page 3

MIDDLE-CLASS WOMEN AND HOUSEWORK.

There is a general idea afloat that, whenever a demand exists for any article, a supply in answer will be forthcoming. So much is this believed in that an artificial "demand is occasionally' created in order to get rid of some supply ; as when several friends of an author apply at different times at Mudie's and at the railway bookstalls for his latest work, in order to give the impression that ifc is much sought after. But that the statement is not a truth of universal application is shown by nothing more ctrtain than by the demand for domestic servants, to meet which there is no adequate supply.

That servants are to the average mistress still "the greatest plague in life," is a* true now as when the amusing brochure with that uitla was penned many years ago. But things have taken even a more perplexing turn than they had then. There is now not only a difficulty in managing servants, but there is actually a scarcity in the number who are willing to enter on domestic service. A recent writer, whose personal experience must have been an exceptionally fortunate one, seemed inclined, when saying " a word for the maids," to insinuate that the whole fault in domestic management l.ty with the mistresses — a conclusion which mistresses indignantly repudiated. It is very certain that servants now-a-days demand more indulgences than they used to receive, and that mistresses are perforce obliged to grant them, whether they are thereby inconvenienced or not. Doubtless the spirit of the age has penetrated their ranks, and they demand more personal freedom than used to be considered good for young women —or, in fact, is good for them now. A servant now-a-days has no hesitation whatever in throwing up her place for any reason, or, perhaps, for none greater than that " she hns been there long enough." She is quite sure that whenever she chooses, and without any too strict inquiry, she will find another home. For mistresses who need help imperatively cannot afford to be too nice, although servants can pick aud choose among their expectant employers.

How many middle-class housewives are there at the present day who would rejoice if some means could be discovered by which servants could be dispensed with. There are some families of whom we know, and more of whom we have heard, in which there are daughters, to whom as they grow up household work is taught, so that they can take the whole of the work into their -own hands, and so they rejoice in being without the burden of a servant. Intelligence and education are no bar to the performance of household work. The educated woman sees at once what is to be done, and does it without any unnecessary fuss. A woman whose eyes and fingers have been trained is much leas, likely to displace articles, or to be awkward in cooking or cleaning, than one in whom the faculty of observation has never been properly exercised. An educated woman is quick, neat, and clever at her household work, and will " dirty no more things than are absolutely needed." And house work, in a wellregulated house, need not extend overevery hour of the day. We hear day by day of the difficulty of finding employment f->r middle-class women on one hund, and on the other hand the difficulty of obtaining adequate domestic help. Let the women of mid-dle-class household returns to the habits of the days of their grandmothers and great-graudmothers, and the difficulty would in a measure cease. Formerly the spuming and weaving, the baking aud brewing, the pickling and preserving needed by the household, took <ip the time of the women-folk entirely. The girls were no incumbrancos then, but useful members, who did much work' in their mothers' house before they migrated to their own.

During the quarter just ended, the cash drawings at the Co-operative Store, Invercargill, amounted to the handsome figure of £1308. This gives an average of £100 weekly, and a trifle over. Not ao bad, that.—" Southland News."