SHOPPING LOADS OF WOMEN

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25551, 20 July 1948, Page 2

SHOPPING LOADS OF WOMEN

MISS HOWARD’S COMMENT CRITICISED From Our Own Reporter WELLINGTON, July 19. A statement by the Minister of Health (Miss M. B. Howard) that “another bogy the Opposition, had raised was that women had become ‘packhorses’“ has drawn criticism from Wellington women. Speaking in the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives, Miss Howard said she believed that women had become used to selecting their purchases when shopping, but, if they patronised stores which had a • delivery service, then they would be relieved of the burden of carrying their parcels home. “We have the very sincere words of Dr. Doris Gordon (formerly Director of Maternal Services) before us and also the findings of the Plunket Society that the carrying home of heavy or bulky burdens is having a very deleterious effect on the health of expectant mothers, mothers of young infants, and young mothers of child-bearing age,” said the president of the Wellington Housewives’ Association (Mrs F. F. Gilmore) to-day. “Miss Howard, if correctly reported, is very lacking In understanding of and sympathy for her sister women.” Few Bread Deliveries To those who had made an extensive study of tradesmen’s deliveries, it was quite evident that Miss Howard had never known the very exhausting process of pushing a pram, watching “toddlers,” and carrying home the necessaries for a week-end. to say nothing of a long week-end, said Mrs Gilmore. In Wellington 'bread was still delivered only in bulk to retailers, hospitals,, institutions, and Bellamys, with the exception of a very few bakers who realised the burdens women had to bear.

“The average housewives are not privileged persons; they cannot drive out in a car to carry home their much needed necessaries and to compare hilly Wellington with Christchurch is just too absurd,’’ Mrs Gilmore said. If all women’s organisations would band together the necessary reforms’would be more speedily accomplished, especially in the direction of forcing tradesmen to give deliveries. A newspaper in Wellington to-day sent a reporter round some of the Wellington hilly suburbs to take an informal poll on whether housewives thought that any describtion of them as “packhorses” was a bogy. A woman from Wadestown said: “If Miss Howard cared to carry my shopping home for me and look after two young children at the same time she would find the title of packhorse more than justified.” A woman from the slopes of Mount Victoria said: “Even on the wettest day, if we want bread I have to go out for it and I have an uphill drag all the way home.” “Just Shake with Strain” A Karori woman said: “Women are definitely packhorses in this vicinity. After carrying a big load home I just shake with the strain. I am sure it is not good for any of us.’’ A woman from Highbury said the only reason she was not a “packhorse” was that her husband did all her shopping and carrying of goods. A Brooklyn resident said the weekend shopping day in her home had long been known as Black Friday. No other household chore, no accumulation of other work, induced fatigue such as that which followed Friday’s shopping. The only favourable opinion reported came from a Ngaio housewife; who said that the butcher and grocer delivered to her door, but she was still waiting for the day when bread deliveries were restored.