NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Bruce Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 14, 19 February 1920, Page 3

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The advantage of a telephone in ; .bringing'the' backblock settler into J touch with the town is well known to every person living outside the metropolitan areas". One of the first things a titan asks for when taking up land is ii telephone. Some years ago the demand was for country post and tele- ; phone offices, 'but the settler* are more impressed vrhh the greater advantages■ of having telephones in- their homes. At the present time there is a demand for party lint; telephones, in connection with which the Department has intro- j duced favourable rates, and which per- ! mit of as many as six subscribers 'being joined to the one line. New Zealand has one telephone to every sixteen inhabitants, 'but a voracious appetite, exists for more. The Department is unable to satisfy the demand, but special steps are 'being taken to over-. , ecine the difficulties and the Postmaster . General has an extensive programme in hand, and those discontented persons clamouring for new cr:;ieetions would do well to remember the tremendous dislocation of the telephone services caused /by the war. The Briti*lt Post. Oiliec alone supplied seven' .million jioumts;' worth of special 'material for the use of the Army abroad, and fitted up at each army headquarter* in Prance a telephonic system equal to that, of a great European' city/ In Xew Zealand the Department lias felt the drain not by the loss of 'material in hand', 'but by tlic, stoppage of supplies from abroad, £n<l the withdrawal of 42 per cent, of its adult male staff for military service. These handicaps are not to be made good in a day, and the- service is now being maintained with switchboards and gear that in normal course would have been scrapped some time back. The public will have reason' to be well satisfied if the improvements ■outlined are effected without further unexpected delays.

The question of obtaining domestic help is like tiro poor, ever with us. Fanners' wives throughout New Zealand, are handicapped in their work no loss than the town resident. It is a matter of {Treat difliculty to get domestic assistance of any kind in country districts, and the proposal to get young women from Great Britain has 'been hailed with delight 'by many housewives. At a recent conference, one of the delegates, from the British Overseas ■Settlement Mission, visiting New Zealand, in connection with the movement, Miss Watkin said that, during the war, there were 200,000 enlisted women in the Royal Navy, the 'Army, the i?oval Air Force, the Voluntary Aid Detachment, and the Women's Land Army. A certain number of these women were returning to _ their hemes, and many to the industries in which they had'been previously employed. But a very large number had made representations to the authorities to see if there were opportunities ■j( continuing their work in the Dominions. Lord Milner (Secretary of State for the Colonies) had interested himself in the matter, and had sent iiut three missions to the Dominions. Miss Watkin said that, personally, s'he ''belonged to the Land Army. Twenty thousand girls had been trained in land work, and had: proved 'highly successful, and many farmers desired to retain this class o*f labour, tout it is doubtful if there is an opening for that class Here. The second class comprised women who would milk and assist in the dairy, and undertake a limited amount of domestic work. She suggested that four hours should toe spent Tn milking and five in housework. It is not suggested that fawners want cheap labour. They must pay these women a fair wage. When arrangements were made for girls to come here, they would toe asked whether they were* prepared to accept a position in (a) a country home, and (to) in a town home. Although there was a need for girls in industries, the greater need was to place them in a home. In two or three months the girls would toe arriving, and the local 'branch of the Farmers' Union has the matter in hand.

During the last epidemic the 'benefit of communal kitchens was emphasised throughout the Dominion. Central or communal kitchens were extensively organised in Great Britain duringthe war period, and competent authorities have urged strongly that they should be permanently retained. The Secretary for Labour ('Mr F. W. Rowley) has directed attention in more than one annual report to the advantages of -communal kitchens as disclosed fey experience in Britain and elsewhere} and last year he suggested that in the event of*garden suburbs being established near the chief centres, tlw ques.■tiou of providing a communal kitchen at each such centre should be considered., 'Communal dining rooms are not suggested. 'Cooked meals would be distributed from the communal kitchens in heat-retaining vessels. "Manyhousewives,'' 'Mr Rowley has observed, would be enabled to cany out their housework without regular domestic help if even the daily dinner could be thus obtained, as the preparation of this meal and the cleaning up afterwards take up. the time of one person for about three hours a day—time which .many mothers with two or three young children' can ill'afford." Properly organised, communal kitchens would effect a considerable economy in the cost of meals as well as in labour. Also, though this is perhaps touching ou delicate ground, they would introduce an appreciable improvement iu the average standards of cookery. An .English authority, Dr Saleeby, (has observed " that "Tm no other sphere, of' present-day civilisation can be found such waste and inefficiency as in- the private kitchen " for the supply ofmeals." His strictures . are perhaps upt altogether inapplicable to New Zealand.