DOMESTIC CRISES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22289, 26 March 1947, Page 6

DOMESTIC CRISES

REACTION TO CUTS STRAIN ON HOUSEWIVES CANDLE-LIGHT TRIALS The average Gisborne husband to-day finds that "the woman scorned” has her counterpart in the housewife trying vainly to catch up with her work in spite of the current power cuts. Domestic crises attributable to the North Island power situation must surely be raying up a reckoning for those regarded as responsible for the lamentable situation in many a home where womenfolk are burning up under restrictions.

For those whose daylight time is spent mainly in the business area, the cuts have their inconveniences, but the employer or worker affected has little emotional strain to withstand. Either the power is on or off, and work progresses or stands still according to how the cuts affect the individual business. It is in the homes that the crises occur, and they come with a frequency which the most philosophical housewife cannot ignore completely. Modern life has come to depend for its smooth running on a number of inventions completely unknown to earlier generations of New Zealanders Electricity in particular is a driving force that in recent years has been harnessed to domestic tasks in increasing volume over an ever-extending field. Not only has the wife of to-day been trained to use it to the full, but she has also been encouraged, by the demands for space in the average modern home, to discard all the appliances which in former days did electricity's tasks.

Lamps and Candles

Many women now in middle life have never previously trimmed a lamp-wick, and comparatively lew have regarded candles as a standard means of illumination at any time in their lives. Large numbers, perhaps, have in the past oeen accustomed to cooking by use oi coat and wood ranges—but whereas some now have lamps ana candies, where are the oid-styie ranges to-day, mey ask. Too few, Indeed, have been able to suDsutute regular lamps for the missing electric lights in the periods of power interruption. Forward-looking nusbands who purchased lamps a week ago were regarded as super-cautious, out the rush on stocks held in Gisborne

curing the past few days nas exhausted every source of supply, and country stores have been ransacked for lamps 01 any Kina suitable for household use. it is sate lo say that to-day there was not a single lamp trom old stocks held in ?ny part of the district. Candles were at a premium likewise, arid tor the past two aays stores have been reserving stocks tor regular customers, who have been heavily rationed in their use. Illumination Quest

The plight ot the prospective homebuilder wno cannot start building tor lack ot materials is now familiar enough to excite little interest except among special groups such as the Returned Services Association; the interesting story to-day is based upon the success or non-success ot seekers after alternative means ot illumination. The housewife who nas a small domestic stock ot candles is envied of her neighbours; the man who acted in time and bought a good table-lamp boasts in his office or workshop circles. Others search forlornly in shops and secondhand stores, some carrying fragments of lamp-glasses which they hope to replace and others figuring the possibility ot matching unrelated bits oi old lamps to make something that will at least throw a gleam. All these frantic activities are merely a reflection ot the harassed housewife’s plight. With the range cold tor important parts of every day, the hotwater service providing only a flow of warm water, and the lighting fixtures limited in their use to a tew hours in the 24, work which normally is spread over the whole day has .to be compressed into about halt the time. While the housewife cooks, her mind is on tne pile ot ironing awaiting attention; and even in those hours when preparations for meals require no stove-heat, there is constant pressure in the thought that household duties are tailing behind schedule. Husbands’ Opportunity

Sympathetic husbands can help relieve Uie pressure by lending their aid in household tasks, alter their own day’s work is over. Not every husband, however, is temperamentally or technically fitted to help much in the home, and there aie wives who staunchly hold that house-management is their own sphere exclusively. 111-trained male hands, in any quantity, do not make light work according to this category of housewives.

The new schedule of cuts brings its climax in the evenings, when famiiycircie routine is most seriously disturbed. Children of school-age can get little home-work done unless they are unusually gifted in concentration; fathers of families sit glumly through the successive black-out periods wondering how long their eyesight must be subjected to present strains; and mothers move through darkened houses with torches or candles trying to keep abreast ol' preparations for the morrow. To quote one suburban resident, it is "murder by candle-light!" Behind all the domestic crises, however, there is a realisation that difficulties have to be faced and overcome. The winter is not yet come, and there seems little hope of an improvement in the power situation for some months at least. Most residents of Gisborne give credit to power-supply authorities for making the best of a situation quite beyond local control, and the most critical are a little reluctant to express themselves in round terms. Recollection of the plight of people in Britain in recent weeks is too keen to permit of self-pity here.