UNPAID LABOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 7, 9 January 1926, Page 26

UNPAID LABOUR.

A POOR OCCUPATION. (By G. EDITH BURTON.) There is no doubt that work without pay makra a monotonous drudgery of almost any billet. Wives and daughters whose wages are that "they get what they need."' grow terfibly tired of the domestic round, and no wonder. Hence it is that on almost every side to-day we see women —wives and daughters — who cannot leave home taking up some side line which will bring in the tangible cash, instead of the' "clothed and feJ rations."

We all, the whole human family, love our wages —wages, salary, stipend, call it by any name, it is still the motive power. From the days when our little hands dusted the chairs, or brought in the light wood, or weeded the paths, for threepence a week, on and on to bigger things—bigger money —grew the deepening satisfaction of the money we earned actually by the work of our own hands. I know several women who amuse mc very much by the way they count up what they have "earned" in their household duties. "There," says one, when she has done the washing when the "char" has failed to arrive, "that's about 6/6 I earned this morning," or, after iraning a few table napkins, "Now I would have had twopence each for those if I kept a laundry." One women gets very exasperated with her husband, nnd every jam season they have the same little duologue. "See all that jam," she says, pointing to her beautiful preserves, "it only cost sixpence per lb, just half what you pay in the shops, and heaps nicer. So much for the fruit, and so much for sugar and about threepence for electricity just brings it to sixpence per lb." "But," says her husband, "you have not charged anything for your labour —you must always include cost of labour." "Don't be silly," she answers, "I don't get paid in any case." "Ah, says" he, "you must always charge up labour: I should say it (the jam) cost about ninepence." And in dumb exasperation she lets him have the last word.

In the average wage earner's home when the children are not needing so much attention, and yet are at the expensive age of clothes and school requisites, mothers try all manner of things to earn some extra income to meet the ever-increasing demand. Boarders, letting a room, paying guests, are the old aids, which are perhaps most lucrative, but which also mean a great deal too much extra work for the mother, and also very often a great deterrent to the wholesome united family life. Home cookery is another and pleasanter money maker. I have heard recently of Women of qhite good standing, who make cakes in their homes for shops which supply these goods. On the same lines afe home-made sweets, which I believe are even more profitable than cake bakihg. Some firms who sell instructions also purchase all goods the pupils make. Darning and mending to do at home seems to mc to be one of the poorest means of making a few shillings. Darning means much time, which, like fancy work, is never paid sufficiently for. An expert dressmaker would be in the highest rank as a money maker, but I am told there is the trouble of getting worked into for more demands than art ordinary mother could undertake. Also, in our stupid way we seem to have put a ban on that means as one of the things "one wouldn't like to do." This seems a . very great pity; ■such a clever talent to bury. Jane Mander, writing some time ago about what money an ordinary novelist made, said she! advised girls to learn typewriting, or better still, dressmaking, rather than hanker after a literary life. And certainly it seems that a small fortune can be made by am expert dressihnkcr or milliner. Bees, flower growing and poultry are all pleasant and most interesting pursuits, but their profits are often as elusive as the pot of gold at the rainbow's end. Beekeeping is most fascinating, but one must be in a good clover district, and keep at least a dozen hives to reap any pecuniary benefit. As far as keeping fowls for profit is concerned, it seems to he one of the things on which uo two

people think alike. I daresay I am a duffer at it. but I never did like the look of the debit side of my poultry book. For people who love flowers, growing them for sale is very congenial work, and there is quite a nice little profit to be made if one can do without the middleman. Otherwise there is very little in it. Next time you buy a fragrant bunch of purple violets for sixpence, think of howlittle the actual grower and picker of them must have made when the florist took his profit. Home-made preserves, like home cookery, make a fair profit, but so many women would rather have a change of occupation to earn a little extra by.