"THE BRAVE NEW HOME"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 195, 19 March 1943, Page 3

"THE BRAVE NEW HOME"

Written for "The Listener" by NEW ORDER

as a social foundation in a world where industry is more and more detached from the home, the home must be as carefully planned to meet the needs of individual life (expression, intellectual sustenance, spiritual repose and security), as the factories have got to be planned for optimum production for national and international needs. The amount of time in a person’s life given to wage-earning is being reduced, and so the amount of time to be "filled in" after work (and after retirement on pension), is being increased. Are we going to leave this time to be merely "filled in" or are we going to plan it so that it becomes the richest part of our lives? "Where Shall We Go?" When a man gets home to a tired wife and noisily tired children, are they merely going to say "Where shall we go to-night? Is there any picture on worth seeing? Is there anything on the tadio worth listening to? By-the-by, have you had the radio mended? No? Did you go to the library to change my book? "No, I didn’t have time even to remember it." "Oh, hell, well what is there to do? Work and eat and sleeplife’s not worth living! .. ." Our Own Time This time is our own. Should it not be most carefully planned, and since some sort of home is inevitable, must this home not be planned to suit? The home is the real spiritual centre of the individual life-there is nothing which can replace the loveliness of the continued intimacy of individual with individual. The churches in these days (let us say it without any irreverence), are the factories of spiritual material, Industrial factories produce articles to be used by individuals at their own sweet will. So churches should stimulate spiritual activities which can be used by individuals especially in the home. What then, should the home be? A centre of spiritual repose? A. secure haven for children? ] F the family is to maintain its value

A social centre for man, woman and children? Especially woman? A place for intellectual retirement? A place for creative expression? A centre to bind together the outside interests of its members? A place for the freeing of the spirit and emotional unbending? And what are the material needs of such a home?, What special rooms should it have? The Fireplace or the Teapot? Radio laid on to living room and retiring room-i.e., the possibility of communal and also of‘ individual listening? ; A quiet reading and writing place, with a book-shelf of reference books and treasured stories? A private picture gallery? Magnificent prints are available. Why not a lending library of pictures? What should be the social centre of a room? The fireplace? If not, what? People need some sort of "shrine" round which to gather (Perhaps a teapot would serve in New Zealand!). And what about the cultural organisation of small numbers of homes? What about the drudgery of home cleaning etc? Men are not required to live their private lives in their workshops or factories or offices as women are at home. What about the ordering and delivery of goods? Bread comes at one time, meat at another, vegetables at another (some even at 8 p.m. on Saturday!). How many rooms in a reasonable house? What should they be like? What about a garden? (Surely everybody should grow vegetables and flowersespecially children), What Do People Think? What does the housewife think about these things? Or an architect? Or a schoolchild?

Or a girl of 18 who is walking out with a boy? Or a boy who is keen on hiking and sport? Or a man in an office? Or a man in a factory? Or a retired worker? Or a horticulturist? Then let us look a little further. What connection shall the home maintain with educational agencies? Why should we not see visiting scholars, craftsmen, to advise and supply necessary material and thus keep contact with our universities and schools? f In other words, why not education from the cradle to the grave — the Plunket system applied to all spheres and all ages? I should like a "plunket nurse" with grey beard to come and inform me of the latest works on art for example. Why should the "under six months" have it all their own way?