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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 731, 17 July 1953, Page 5

Sir-After listening to Miss Emily Carpenter’s talk on the New Zealand housewife and Mrs. Gunther’s reply, I feel that Mrs. Gunther did not take Miss Carpenter’s remarks in the spirit in which they were intended. Mrs. Gunther is evidently labouring under the delusion that Miss Carpenter wished to

deprecate the New Zealand housewife. Shall we take stock of ourselves, as Miss Carpenter suggests, or settle’ back complacently as Mrs. Gunther obviously feels we can afford to do? Mrs. Gunther’s eulogy of the country housewife does not alter the fact that our homes are "pretty-pretty" (town and country); that they° do tend to have a rather wearisome uniformity instead of being expressions of our own particular individualities. There is room for improvement in our household routines, and we can learn from the Home Science School better and quicker methods of cooking and cleaning. Do we city housewives resent Miss Carpenter’s constructive criticism? I for one do not, Since becoming a housewife I have made good use of the Home Science Extension Service, sending for pamphlets and listening to the excellent advice given over the air in the women’s sessions. Consequently I did not have to weste time learning to run my household by trial and error. Laboursaving devices certainly make life easier for the housewife, and while agreeing with Mrs, Gunther that these may not be within the reach of a newly-married couple, it surely is folly to suggest that putting one’s money on the totalisator will supply one with a washing machine‘

CITY HOUSEWIFE

(Invercargill).