OMEN'S WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 25, 29 January 1921, Page 16

OMEN'S WORK.

\ v. rr.or in a recent exchange tnakoo i <-.-.r.0 pertinent remarks on the subject <m" Iho unnecessary work in a kitchen. , \ilor pointing out the lt, at waste of nil , ], which i. J entailed by using a coal j smvr, l iio writer »ays: "But a much] worse "was>to" is the. waste of human j !ifi\ lt is really a "sung of a stove'"; just as much as the "son;,' of a shirt." I K/-eoivUy, a woman spoke to mc of her j mother, who di-d in her r>o , ?. "She i spent her days going between the sink j and stove." (.'loaning the range, cook- j in:: and washing up (overdone as unfor-j l:i:>;uelv it is by so many women) broke her. Why should women slave at a coal rajjge simply to conserve fuel for factory list.: No ono woul.l dream of saying it was as easy to cook on a coal range as on a gas or electric cooker, unless hope- I lessly biased or conservative. Woman's ■ claim, as mother and potential mother, ] comes first: if coal tfoes down, then j m.'.n will invent some expedient to carry j i-n on the commercial side. Mothers ; can't be invented or manufactured. I The writer then draws attention to j the lack o! new ideas in the arrange- | ments of the ordinary New Zealand '■ kitchen. W'ny are we in New Zealand | ,-o backward in the matter of architec- | ■ -.ire and finish in our kitchen furniture'! j In the Uld Country one sees many vario- ! ti"S. even of coal ovens and stoves, not to lie found in New Zealand. We keep to one type, a wasteful, unscientific type of range. Our irirls ere taught as an elementary fact that heat rises, then they , I'ome to stoke up a tire that twos over and makes red hot. the top of an oven, and leaves the bottom cool enough to git upon almost. In an English oven the tire goes underneath, and vxery part of the oven can be used. a coal oven has one, at, most two, ledgos or tlaiiaes lor shelves to sit upon, and cooking is tI)U3 limited to one or two shelves. A cooker has live or six. und many trays ciui bo cooked at the same time. Then, as to cleaning. Last year the writer went through the worka of one of the largest range foundries in Knj;land, and saw not one range that needed io be black-lcuded. and few that needed the steel to be polished. Her hostess in the samo'town had lh ej thirteen years in her house (not new when ?he went j in), and had not once had to clean her j lovely ranjre, save n wipe over daily with ; a wet cloth. The enamel was like that on a motor ear, and the steel all silverplated. Vet we must go on, spending hours per week all told, black leading and polishicg, wasting time and energy needlessly.