WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

Evening Star, Issue 19325, 11 August 1926, Page 4

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

Dr Whyte’s class on Friday afternoon dealt with some of tho conditions in industry affecting the health of tho workers.

One of the most important factors affecting the health of the worker is the securing of good and adequate ventilation. It is only comparatively recently that it has boon realised how verv important' a part the shin plays in maintaining fitness. Maximum efficiency or output is impossible when the floor of the work room is cold. In the majority of eases the heat comes in too far above tho floor, and the tendency is for the workers to have too much heat at their head level and not enough for their loot. Tho old idea of maintaining a minimum cubic capacity of air, regardless of its temperature, and even more regardless of its movement, was now found, alter careful experiment, to lie insufficient.. A thermometer reading alone was inadequate. The essential thing to keep the worker fit-—and consequently efficient—was that there should ho a, good current of air; and it was more and more customary to use artificial means of securing this by electric fans or other methods. Workers could help themselves, ton, in this matter hy paying attention to suitable clothing. The question of hours worked and its effect on health was considered. The New Zealand requirement of a lortyeight and fcirt.v-fivc-honr < week for workers was really in the interest ol efficiency and output, though its original conception was due chiefly to a desire to benefit tho worker. But experiments of every kind have proved conclusively that overtime seldom achieved its object. Prolonged hours resulted in much reduced hourly output, and the general health of the workers suffered so seriously through overtime that absence owing to illhealth often reduced in tho long run tho actual hours of work done in the factory where overtime was practised. So far, very little has been done in this country with industrial health research. Apart From the State industrial medical service, the medical work 'done m individual factories in England 'showed the great benefit to tho industry that resulted from attention being given to the health of the worker. Fitness was not everything, but the greatest efficiency could never be reached unless the worker was fit; and in a properly organised modern factory inefficiency was more and more regarded as a symptom, and it was tho business of the welfare worker to discover whether causes were operating to impair the health of the worker, and, by ro r moving these causes, the worker would again be able to put out her best effort. In return she would increase her earning capacity; and the feeling of being able to do well the work she was put to do, without undue strain, gave the worker a sense of well-being that reacted on her health.

HOME ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION. On Wednesday last Te Kianga branch of the Home Economics Association met at the residence of the president, Mrs Lightfoot. Owing to the prevailing epidemic a number of members were absent, but several visitors were present, amongst them being Mesdamos Cooper, Knight, and "Wilson, each being a leader'of another branch of the association. The subject for the evening was introduced by the president. ‘ Euthenics, the Science of Controllable Environment,’ by Ellen H. Richards, was the hook chosen for study. The aim of the book is to arouse the thinking portion of the community to the opportunity of the present moment for inculcating such standards of living as shall tend to the increase of health and happiness. Wo have certain inherent capacities as to bodily strength, length of life, etc., hut it lies largely with ourselves to adopt a mode of life which may make an actual difference in height, weight, physical strength, and intellectual capacity. No State can thrive while its citizens waste their resources of health, bodily energy, time, and brain power, any more than a nation may prosper ' which wastes its natural resources. The most important service that a teacher of domestic economy can render is to give them a geu.se of control over thoir euvixonunmt,

than which nothing is more conducive to stability of ideas. To feel oneself in command of a situation is to rob it of its terrors. Much interest was shown by the members, who decided to continue the study at the next gathering on August 18.