EFFICIENT WIVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 136, 11 June 1927, Page 24

EFFICIENT WIVES.

THE TO BE WEDS. A WOMAN CRITICISES. This is a story with a moral written •for the About-To-Be-Weds, so the HavcBeens need not read it. She is a charming young thing of about 2t-i-I say "is" because the narrative is in the present ttn3e—short frocks, silk stockings, shingled hair complete with a wave and an engagement ring. This later is the central theme of the story. Slie is engaged to the finest and nicest and best-looking and kindest and cleverest man in the world. Of course. They all are. Also she is extravagantly happy. As is very right and proper. Unfortunately the world does not seem to have formed any adequate conception of the fineness, niceness, ete., ef this young man, for it his weekly labours with the sum of £5 net. And my dainty damsel proposes marrying him on that. At once we hear the questions: "Well, what of it?" "Isn't he lucky to be getting a steady £5 a week?" and so on. "There are heaps of people bringing up families on less," and so on.

A Five Pound Budget. Now the girl is what is popularly called middle-class. Her mother always kept a maid, but now, owing to die shrunken pound she is reduced to a visit from the charlady twice a week. All the washing goes to the laundry. My little wife-to-be "helps ta get the breakfast"—that is to say, she carries in a jug of boiled milk or a couple of boiled eggs in the intervals - f looking at the pictures in the she ' kelps with the bedrooms," that is, she puts an odd slipper away, and dnsts the dressingtable; she also "helps with the shopping," o.r, in other words, rings up the butcher'or calls at the greejgjpcer's for a head of celery. Once she got a job at thirty shillings a week, and found it a struggle to keep herself in clothes and amusements on it, though she had free board and lodging at home. Now she proposes marrying and bringing up a family on £5 a week. Here's her budget- * % Rent £1 10 0 Travelling costs .... 0 5 0 Fuel, light, etc 0 10 O Housekeeping expenses 2 0 0 Husband's lunches, etc 0 5 0 Total £4 10 0 Tins leaves the grand sum of 10/ for insurance, pocket-money for both, holidays, clothing, and hair*waves. I mention the last item because she is most insistent on that. She is willing to fore"go the weekly wave and make it a fortnightly affair, but when I suggested she might have to cut it out altogether, her face flushed. "Oh,* I could never do that," she protested, "I should die straight away if he saw me with my hair straight." As to laundry, she had forgotten all about that in her budget, and they wouldn't want holidays, and she could pay for a charlady out of the housekeeping allowance.

I know there are hundreds ,of gallant little wives making do on a great deal less than £5, but they work, and this girl can neither cook, wash, nor mew—at least, she can cook if you call making custard from powder, cooking; and her idea of washing is limited to silk stocktings. Her great idea seems to be to fha've a large pork pie in the house, and plenty of tinned fruit—supplemented by the aforesaid custard, 1 suppose. What's more, she's making no effort to learn ..housewifery, fondly imagining that because she loves her fine, nice young man, all will be well, and that 30/ spent by love wiU buy £2 worth of tinned fruit and pork pie, and leave an ample margin for hair waves, laundry and clothes.

Facing the Realities. I think a protest should be made against such inefficiency. Men have hail to face realities of the present economic situation, and yet hundreds of girls refuse to wake up to it. They're keen to get married and have homes of their own. To be quite blunt, they are taking all and giving nothing. Any girl who is going to get married on £5 a week and pay 30/ rent ought to take the matter seriously, if she has any intention of making her marriage happy. Because, anyone who has been married ten minutes knows that amateurishness, even if love-inspired and love-guided, is a. most painful and -nerve-racking application. It may be fun having- cold pork pie followed by tinned, peaces and lumjgr custard for the first w«ek, but the second week it palls, and the third week it is anathema to any man with any sort of regard for his stoibach.

Marriage is a new job, and it is surely the most stupendous impudence" to accept a new job without a single redeeming qualification. Every girl who is going to be her own cook and laundress ought to be impelled by her own sense of fairness to take a course of cookery and . larundry—not the d» luxe variety that teaches you how to make flaky pastry and lemon meringues, but 'the plain, | honest-to-goodness sort that tells you to make a soul-satisfying stew out of sixpenny worth of oddments, and how to contrive a delicious please-can-I-have • some-more breakfast out of one small fish- Surely it is only fulfilling an unwritten contract to lay out the moivv <1« wisely as possible. And the wise lav.n-l out of money is not a gift you develop when the wedding ring is put on votti

Let s have freedom in marriage and independence and trust and service and anything else you like. But do let us have efficiency to start off with. After all, eustard as the staple diet ia a little—thin.