MENIAL DUTIES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 54, 7 March 1929, Page 13

MENIAL DUTIES

THE CLERGYMAN'S WIFE

AN ENGLISH DIFFICULTY

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, /stti January. Following up the correspondence on the clergy and their hdmes. the Rev. George H; Hewitt takes exception to the letter of "M. C. Carrington, Chnstcliurch, Hants'," who' heia up the New Zealand clergymen's wives as praiseworthy examples.. .' , ,• ' "I do not for a moment,'f he writes in tho" "Daily. Telegraph," '.'consider household work and gardening as unseemly pursuits, or anything 'menial, if that term be. used only as a term of reproach, in which sense I had no intention of using'it. ' ' ; "What I have objected to is the compulsion under the stress of. very diminishing incomes, to which a' Commission •has recently borne witness, of the time of the clergy and their wives in many instances being more and more overburdened with what in normal-days, and in more reasonable circumstances, would not have arisen, namely, the lack of freedom for cultural pursuits, and for developing that'spiritual and intellectual leadership ou which society generally so much depends for its healthy advance. /. . ,' .' ■'-.':.■,' ' '■■..-'" ..>."The people will/notxise higher than they ■ are led. 'Smartness, arid .neatness in dress, and small .parties,' are all; very well.in .their wa'y,',but; have little, reference to the urgent matter under discussion. I would like.to reiterate the excellent statement of the' Bey. ,H. L. Fosbrooke, that 'men, who enter the ministry do not'ask for luxury, but they, do ask for a quiet, iniha, with which to sorve .God and fulfil .their vocation.' , - : . ■•'. "I know.of i.a vicar's wifo -m .the Midlands .who .through sfcresa.pf.housework and duties during the war lost her life through ' sleepy . sickness'V brought on by overwork. I know only too much of what I have witnessed, and to what others have borne eloquent testimony."

XS IT PRIDE? Another correspondent says:^ "While I sympathise heartily with any woman having all her own work to do, as well as a family to bring up, I canont help wondering whether, in the case of clergymen's wives, it is always an inadequate income which prevents the necessary help. Do tho majority of clergymen's wives make good, broadminded, tolerant, modern mistresses? Are they not far more often more able to manage a parish than their own home and a maid? ■ ' J

"While one cannot but ;feel sorry for the lady who, through overwork, mot her death, at the same-time brie realises that many women have done the same in all.social scales. ;.Menial duties do not stunt a cultured woman; they add to her greatness if-she is strong-willed enough to work upwards- to a higherideal, and not let the menial duties drag her down. "But what is the sum total of the whole argument? Conceit.' "Most women think it degrading and beneath their dignity to do all the housework. ■Is it?'* -■. '■ ■■: '■■ ■'-'-■ : '■■ •■:■■'. ■■'■■ ■ ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCES. "Candida," who evidently knows something about New Zealand, writes as follows:—. ■-„'. . ■;.■■■ '-'In reply to the letter from your correspondent, M. C. Carrington, as on c who hits experienced; the life of vicar's wife in New Zealand and now rector's wife in England, I .must contend that the situations are not comparable. In a New Zealand parish, where servants are not kept by the greater number of the -ladies of the congregation, the jjaaiijon causes 'no embarrassments or difficulties.' ' ' : ;,•.',./. "In an English parish,. where t%;rvants are kept by all her friends and confreres, and she has none, the,rector's wife is quietly 'left out' by her social equals, not unkindly, but merely as ' impossible, '■' while' the poorer parishioners cannot help an ■equally, quiet feeling' of amiable, contempt)or one of re? sentment.

"The. actual work and.its conditions are completely different: in' New Zealand. For instance, there is the easilyworked small bungalow type of house, kept in repair and decorated by the parish, the invigorating sunny climate, and the 1 simple mode of entertaining. If I gave a party nearly . every guest brought, some. delicious ready-to-serve dainty, and all the women shared in the washing up after the meal was over.

'.'Here I have been m'6rtified;,time and again by the obvious anguish of really delightful men who did not know how to bear remaining seated at table while I changed the plates. In New Zealand the most polite man yet thinks of all women as being naturally accustomed .to waiting and working, and the feminine 'totem' does not stand so high as. it does here. • . "In New Zealand a child is never 'de trop,' and the mother of a family can iftke hera with her anywhere and be sure of welcome; not so here. But even taking into consideration all these points, there is no denying the hardness fof the New Zealand life, and that is why my huge," inconvenient house, my life devoid of entertainment, and niy 'unseemly' and menial work are, yet 'more to my taste in my-own country than exile abroad. But there is no denying that under such circumstances i there is ho energy or Spirit left for parochial work."