PORRIDGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 30 June 1913, Page 2

PORRIDGE.

STRIKING REVELATIONS

A report on the diet of labouring classes in Gu-sgt>.v, prepared by Miss Dorothy Lindsay, B.bj., a fcarnegie Research Fellow, ha* been issued by authority of the corporation.-y In an introduction' to Hie report. Professor jSoel. Pa foil remarks • that "to say that the prosperity of a city depends largely upon tho health and vigour of its labouring clasps is, perhaps, -:i truism. But, judging by ■ tho scant attention which is paid L> j tho study of the factors which inflft- < enco the vigour of the comm'utifty, i« i is a truism the significance of which J is not always fully appreciated. , 1 Professor Pa ton points b:it that a • nail's ultimate power as a earner is being influenced by the clwuacter of his food supply. An abundance of cheap and good food, ho states, is the first essential for a productive working class-. The report deals withvarious groups of wage earners, and tho statistics in Glasgow go to prove that while the labouring cclasse s with a regular income of over 20 s per week generally mahago to . "cure a diet approaching tho proper standard for active life, those with a •smaller income, and those with an irregular income, entirely fail to get a supply of food sufficient for the proper development and growth of the body, or for tho maintenance of a capacity for active work.

The investigations also show that among the labouring classes, urban and rural, tho wages are frequently so low after providing the barest necessities of life, little or nothing is loft for amusements, tiavel or other amenities. It is to be feared that in the face of old-established dietary habits? of ignorance aiiid of i-he stultifying infiuonco of tho surroundings, ;ny reform in tho modo of feeding might set free a greater proportion of ihe income will only be slowly achieved as the result of. proper teaching and training in tho schools. Something may be done, says Professor Noel Paten, to improve the la■nenti.ble condition of things. These studies show that ignorance and bad marketing, a-s well as penury, play their parti, and one or two diets demonstrate how on adequate diet may bo procured on less than the average expenditure. They encourage th hope that the teaching of the value;, of different foods, and a training in marketing and cooking in schools may have an infhienoe in the future. Those Glasgow studies teach the same lessons that taught by their Edinburgh investigations—that wh:>t i wanted is a partial return to the i;htional dish of porridge and milk, in place pf tea, bread and jam, which have so universally replaced it in towns, and which are replacing i. even in rural districts.