Greymouth Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1946. THE HOUSEWIFE’S BURDENS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 March 1946, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1946. THE HOUSEWIFE’S BURDENS.

are merrily pursuing i easier < working conditions and, with ; the 40-hour week, more abundant leisure. 1 Few of them, or their leaders, seem to , give much thought to how reduced standards of service affect the wife and mother. Few seem to care how many hours a week she has to work in order to keep the home running, so long as the home is kept running and full provision made for their personal comfort. There is no 40hour week for the housewife. This fact was recently brought sharply to the notice of Greymouth women when the master bakers and the master butchers replied to a petition, signed by about 400 householders, that under present-day conditions and costs it was impossible to re-

vert to the delivery system. They maintained that delivery of either meat or bread would necessitate a considerable increase in costs of both to the public. It had been-pointed out in the petition that “the present system where everyone has to go to one shop for meat presses heavily on every housewife, but the difficulties of mothers with young children and of elderly people are heartbreaking.” It appears that the housewife will have to continue to bear her burdens as cheerfully as possible. In a recent statement the Minister of Transport, Mr. O’Brien, said that the matter was one for the retailers, but the Government would give every encouragement to the butchers, bakers and grocers to resume their pre-war retail delivery services as soon as they possibly could. In the absence of evidence of definite action, “every encouragement” must be taken as one of those meaningless terms which Ministers have a habit of using when the Government desires to postpone as long as possible an effective approach to a difficult problem.

There are solid grounds for the suspicion that retailers found that the zoning and restricted delivery services introduced as a war-time emergency measure were to their economic advantage. There are equally solid grounds for the view that the advantage so accruing has in some measure been offset by increased labour, transport and business costs. However, the view is held in quarters to the opinions of which considerable importance must be attached, that the retailers have been extravagant in their claims regarding .costs. This is a matter calling for official investigation. The re-

tail margins fixed by the Price Tribunal are based on costs, and the retailers, if they persist in their attitude, should be afforded an early opportunity of establishing their figures. To that extent at least, official intervention would be justified. It is a matter in which the Government might well interest itself. The Minister expressed himself as aware of the transport problem when he stated that he realised that some retailers were hampered because of difficulties relating to vans and tyres. The fact should not be overlooked, however, that surplus army stocks are available, as well as a small but increasing number of imported vehicles. Tyres for essential purposes also do not appear to be in acutely short supply. The transport problem, it would seem, is capable of solution. The crux of the delivery problem is the increase in costs, with which are bound up in some • degree matters of Government policy and their effect on the general economic structure of the country. That probably explains Mr. O’Brien’s inability 9 to make an effective approach to the matter. The war has ended; it is time that steps were taken to restore a. better balance.

Apart from deliveries of foodstuffs having been severely cut down or cut out altogether, the housewife* has to face many difficulties. Saturday closing of shops and longer closing for holidays have added to her problems. The bother of manipulating all the family’s ration books coincides with the tiresome shopping round. A market basket loaded with meat, bread, fruit and vegetables adds a physical tax to the other distractions. It is obvious that the rest of the community is having its demands for more leisure satisfied at the expense of the homemaker. It is undeniable .that if militant unionists had to work under such conditions for some 12 hours a day seven days of the week they would soon .compel the Government to ease their lot.

The interests of the home and family should be placed first. As was pointed but in this column on a previous occasion, the conditions under which the ordinary housewife has to work bear an obvious relation to the low birth-rate. New Zealand urgently requires more and larger families; it will never be the happy land it ought to be until its life is centred in the home.