TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 142, 16 June 1923, Page 18

TOPICS OF THE DAY

(By "M.H.C.")

j It appears that the Ministry of Lab. %nr in the Old Country has set up a Committee to investigate the question of /domestic service, .and "Time and Tide" temarks that there are few problems ,tohich seem to engender such heat as ; ilp, and alludes to the large numbers of ■gifls and women who are living on the iwell-named "doles." A New Zealand jsvoman, who has just returned from an overseas tour, where she kept her eyes jvell-opened,, and.observed many things -.which are likely to be of use to her own 'country, remarked on the extraordinary anomalies which the fact of the doles "brought forth. Some" people, in.- Scotland, who were longing to get charjvomen's help, were deprived of one •"household treasure" after another because as soon as it was found that she ;tvas supplementing the dole, by ever so small a sum, she was deprived of it. The Consequence was, though it was small, it was certain; so the women were forced to give up their "places" and exist in idleness, so far as earning a little was concerned. The comic side of the affair consists in wondering what is the personnel of the committee set up. Is it an assemblage of estimable elderly gentlemen, whose knowledge of the household problems consists in finding fault with the succession of cooks provided by their wives, whose efforts in the culinary art,a,re seriously open to question, The writer- of -the well-known comic song "When.Father Laid the Carpet on the Stair" knew a great deal; and the little touch in the last line, after recounting the adventures of father aud the carpet, states "So Mother laid the Carpet on the Stair" is the truest touch of all. It will be very instructive later to read the results of this most involved business, where sometimes the maids are in fault through absurd demands, coupled with absolute incompetence or education in their important .work; or sometimes where selfish mistresses require the domestic helpers to |\vork continuously for twelve hours or more, treating them with discourtesy, allocating them the poorest quarters, the law will permit. It would take a; ■'score of feminine Solons to deal with the matter, and no one would envy the ieommittee its job.

I Writing from the Middle Temple, Lonfdon, Audrey Harverson, a New Zealand,«r, 'an reference to what she calls "the unenviable position which the law of the country allots to women," states that in 'reference to the recent legislation that j'the jam of privilege will be found to a very, nauseous power indeed. tPMiss Harverson refers to the fact mentioned by Mrs. Crofts in "Time and /ffide," that if a husband buys a property •"in Ills wife's name (with his own money) .she takes it absolutely; whereas a wife %vying property with her own money lvin her husband's namS is entitled to Jhold it as beneficial owner in the abjsence of any contrary intention. "Before 'giving the husband too much sympathy," says Miss Harvnerson ; "it is as .-j^ell to look at the other side "of the .question, and remember that_ a woman cjwhen she marries has no claim to any of her husband's income, salLary, or wages (except in the Church Ser-f-vice, which presents her with all his '{worldly goods); the very obligation to 'maintain a wife is not directly recognised fin the English law." Later, the writer: Refers to the fact that coercion need not hbe physical. The cruelty may be much }more refined. "Can it honestly be said fcfchat a husband who can legally refuse jto allow a wife to see her own child; who Kcan educate the child in any religion he Meases; who can commit adultery with iimpunity, giving the wife no right to fclaim a divorce.; who can refuse his wife but" the bare necessaries of flife, both in food and clothing, is unable \to exercise the doctrine of coercion?" fit is often said in reference to these ftmatters. "that these things only happen mn occasions, and with abnormal men. teut the pity is that they should be altlowed at all. Reasonless and continual 'cruelty practised by the miser, the oversexed, the naturally cruelly-disposition-ed simply should not be allowed, and if ,\vomen are not protected by the law of (ithe land it is a poor look-out for them.

An amusing litle. touch regarding the (•British Parliament is in a women.', •paper. It appears that a second reading las teen given to the Performing Amsnals Bill, which provides some protection to shabhy tigers, and hapless dogs, ■cats, and apes, which are sometimes seen in travelling companies which cannot manage to renew these creatures when ■worn out or ill; and objections" were raised to the Bill on the score that it wag a case of the rich interfering" with the amusements of the poor. The writer points/out that sick or miserable creatures.should not provide food for amusement to the decent-minded. A quaint touch follows thus:—Mr. Patrick. Collins, the showman M.P., who opposes, the .Bill in, the interest of the business, has made a proposal which really does, demand attention. He wants the galleries 'of the .House of Commons enlarged, the debates advertised, and "strangers" made to pay for their seats. Speaking from a long "professional experience, he declares his.fe'Jlpw-members area highly talented company, which the British public would gladly pay to see and hear. And he has spotted several comedians hitherto unconscious of their mirth-provoking_genius." This is a suggestion which is worthy of thought; especially in these days when money is wanted so sorely in so many useful and necessary directions. Then ''Comedy of Parliament" would sure^ xn'alci;' good advertising material, and the attractions many. _ _