HOUSEHOLD BUDGET

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 3 (Supplement)

HOUSEHOLD BUDGET

THE WOMAN'S VIEWPOINT. i FURS AND JEWELLERY ON BASIC WAGE.

(By M.8.5.)

The attempts being made to fix a basic wage for workers, and the sums considered adequate by the various interested authorities, must be causing considerable discussion among housewives; no one can bo more concerned with family income than the woman in the home, for it is she who must plan to make ends meet, and who most feels a shortage. Women will welcome a change to better conditions, and may be depended on to give their families full value of any advantage gained by economic -change. If wage cuts are to become a thing of the past, and bread winners receive an adequate return for their services no one will be more pleased than mothers of families*

This being so the recently published computation of household needs and expenditure must have made interesting reading for housewives. It is hardly likely that the amounts allotted for the various divisions of the home budget will be allowed to pass without criticism. Living under a system whereby such matters are arranged by men for women, it is up to us to carefully watch such proceedings as the fixation of wages on a hypothetical household expenditure lest women fail to receive the measure due to them. It is noted' with satisfaction that the dress allowance for a wife under the analysis of the £5 weekly scale exceeds that of the husband by 10/ per annum, presumably in order to cover the cost of such items as "cosmetics, perfumes, powders, jewellery, furs and a manicure set" as indicated by the published list. It is noted, also, that though a wife is allowed both a winter costume and a winter dress, each to last two years, she is expected to make one summer dress do for the same length of time; so mere man who knew something of the proclivities for twisting and turning engendered among women by the economic shortage must have suggested that particular division of expenditure. "Best" shoes must also last two years regardless of changes in fashion. The outcry that is invariably made in Australia and elsewhere when Arbitration Court judges and other authorities make pronouncements as to what they consider suitable dress allowances. for women is proof that women will not tamely submit to inexpert decisions on such matters. It would take a superSolomon to give a judgment that would please all those affected, and finally settle so debatable a question. No Wages for Wives. It is noticeable that though there is a theoretical division of the 'weekly wage allowing the wife, for personal

needs, a total annual amount of £16 8/, there is no suggestion of any arrangement by which she is to have this sum secured to her. Wages for wives as a worthy principle has not yet appeared on our horizon; mutual goodwill is still the only ibasis on which housewives can hope to gain any equitable division of the family income.

Since, as was pointed out recently by a contributor to the "Star" women's page, there is nothing under our marriage system to compel a husband to give his wife any money at all, it may be presumed that the august computors of the cost of running a home have left it to the husband to decide whether he gives the wife her share in cash or kind. £8 per year for each of the three hypothetical children under the scale seems inadequate when one reckons the cost of good juvenile clothing, footwear, swimming suits, school equipment, fares, holidays, amusements and all the numerous needs of tho normal modern child. If mother must have cosmetics, jewellery and furs out of dad's wages, surely Mary and John, approaching that period of expanding ego known as adolescence, can claim some of the frills of life too.

Since the average New Zealand family is so much below tho theoretical number allowed for under the newly-suggested wage fixations, and it is as unfair to limit the allowance for families over that computation as it is to pay for non-existent children, an arrangement whereby mothers would be paid for the maintenance of their children would be more equitable, and less costly. A proposal of this kind is being enthusiastically promulgated by a section of Auckland women, and should receive support from all who wish to see a satisfactory settlement of the longneglected question of the family in relation to economics.

As nothing is allotted in this family budget for such essential items as dental treatment, purchase and upkeep of household furnishings and linen, periodicals and newspapers," library fees, etc., the omission {so carefully noted in the report) of kitchen etceteras, like cornflour, baking soda, macaroni and spaghetti, wiil not weigh heavily on the mind of the harassed housewife faced with the problem of balancing the budget on £5 and sixpence per week. It should also' be noted that cleansing materials—an important item in all households—have also been forgotten. So, in spite of masculine investigations and deliberations, women must still sit down with paper and pencil and do their own budgeting with their share of the family income—if and when they get it.