WANTED:

NZ Truth, Issue 68, 6 October 1906, Page 1

WANTED:

■■.'' - m ■". A WORKWOMEN'S CLUB.

.' 9kk remarked m a brief paragraph m last week's issue, a working v?o---inan who is alone m. Wellington has a .verf hard row to hoe. Between berths she is liable to all' sorts of disabilities and misconstructions, and beyond a question, Wellington, from the plentiful, lack ol domesticity it suffers under, is . about the limit as far as the'homelessness of the work-, ing woman- is concerned. [Even the better class of women, those, for instance* who go out as lady helps and the like— lady helps who have the very;, hardest of menial housework, including washing, to doj with les§ than the commonest general servant's pay, for the "privilege of being allowed to sit at the family table and be sneered at and chaffed familiarly by the men, of the family and the inevitable board-ers-^eveh these, when circumstances throw them out; of a- berth, have no place to go to while ttoey look around for another except a common lodginghouse, where one night's shelter and one day's board absorbs nearly a <week's wages. Not only so, but these temporary refuges arc full of traps for the unwary m the shape of men on the look-out for (Women who are tired m body and sick at heart and who will respond ail-too eagerly to a little kindness,, a little .suggestion of a hit of brightness and love m their drah lives. i * * «... To i young \sx\s t compelled to earn their living m service, these spells between situations are times of extreme danger, for , there is nowhere to go but to public boarding or lodging houses mainly occupied by men; and even these are hard to find, so strong is the prejudice -among landladies against female lodgers. Then one week's board and lodging at the rates charged m this city will absorb practically three weeks' wa-ges, so that a 'girl has rarely an opportunity of saving a little .money against a rainy day. Country parents who allow their young daughters' to come to Wellington for the sake of the high wages, little know the terrible risks those daughters n:un, or of the frequent spells of idleness, when the? high wages melt like snow m sunlight before the tremendous cost of living. Very, lucky indeed is the working girl who. finds a motherly body who will make her feel at home during periods of enforced idleness, for women of that type are extremely rare among Wellington landladies. For the woman worker, such as factory hands, laundry-women and the like, the trouble is even more acute, for they find very few to receive them as lodgers, still fewer as boarders. "Gimme men," unctuously ejaculates the average boarding or lodginghouse-keeper. "I don't want women m my 'ouse, they make too much trouble," And so a work-wo-man out of a situation, or one employed m a factory or laundry by day, finds it a very hard task to get a room to vgoto at night. Even when found, it is to the out-o'-work only a night shelter. The landladies hate to have women hanging around during the day and, moreover, do not reokon they have any right to occupy their sleeping room by day. Hence a working woman out of a job is expected to do as men similarly situated do by choice, spend the day out of doors. t • • But even the parsons and the "good" (cruel) women of Wellington will acknowledge that what is easy tor meh may be terrible for women. A man will go around looking for a job arid then foregather at some centre of labor 1 and talk to others similarly situated, alternating the corner with the hotel bar and a pot of beer and a snack of, counter lunch. A woman cannot do these things, and moreover a woman trapesing the streets or sitting on a vacant lot (there are no park benches here where the footsore, homeless woman can rest hor weary limbs) is certain to be accosted and led into temptation by idle men or worse women, and eventually to be marked down by the police and warned off the streets, if no worse. This is »p , exaggerated statement of the possibilities. It is just what might happen to any lone woman thrown out of work m this city, where everybody is "on the make" and competition Is so Keen

and where so many people merely room or rent portions of other people's houses.

Now the parsons and their flocks of "elect" become' every week more menacing m their attitude towards the unregenerate and they have taken to driving Ministries on the curb and applying the whip m a manner as audacious as ii is outrageous. Through their inevitable reactionaryism the country is fast becoming a laughing-stock to the world, ■ and, as m all times when .the churches got the upper hand, is -retrogressing at every point where H; should be progressing with the times. 'There is scarcely any one thing that the people like to do, that -the parsons and prohibs; and such-like , scabs on thc fair face of Nature have not raised a howl against, till, unless people are content to be kept under the flat thumb of a parson and have no will of their own m anything ; unless they flock blindly^ stupidly to sit and hear one no less ignorant but only a shade more cunning than .themselves, expound the, scriptures and take his narrow views and opinions .for the teachings of Divine law, the place has ' become intolerable as a residence. And with all their howling against gambling and drink and Sabbath desecration, what real good have these pestilent parsons and prohibitionists done for the State or the People ? Have they raised the standard of public morality one fraction ? Have they enriched the country one cent ? No. Most emphatically not. That m some districts moderate, respectable drinkers are debarred from gratifying their own tastes and contributing their, share to the revenue is true ; but that any drunkards have been reformed or. that they have gone short of liquor, because of prohibition, is untrue. The* country is no. better and a great deal more hypocritical because of prohibition. As to gambling—well, mankind gambled from the beginning and will gamble to the end of time, just as the soldiery on Calvary gambled for the Master's garments, and Joseph gambled on . the wheat market, long before Moses's time. How many of these loudmouthed anti-tote, antieverythin-gar-ian parsons have dipped into oilshares, it might be pertinent to ask ?. And. if that "is n6tya gamble of thc riskiest— well, toting your fancy is child's' play to it for chances 1 j» ■ ••■ . • If th^se pietists and those good, weak women who are led by them to help them to embitter the world for themselves and those around them, were to look about for something to do that would do real good for their fellow men, people who are not so fanatic or so easily gulled and misled would begin to believe that they meant well after all. And here is a suggestion for them ; a good work ready to their hands and, one that would carry a blessing with it. Let them divert their misdirected energies and expend them on providing a Working Women's Club, where people of the classes alluded to above, who now find the disposition of themselves, when not at work, such ..a cruel poser, could obtain lodging and food and proper accommodation by Iday, at a price that would brin_ them within the reach of' all. There could be no better work of philanthropy ; for a home of this nature, properly conducted by a competent matron (not a preachy, acidulated frump) would save thousands of girls and women from the first wrong step, when left alone m a strange town full of peculiarly selfish people, would make the life of thousands of female- toilers brighter and better, more hopeful and more- bearable. If a girl or woman knew that she could be sure of a comforting meal and a warm bed and a cosy reading room m which to spend the hours that otherwise are so terrible and so full of temptation and danger, after her day's work or while waiting for a reengagement, life m Wellington would be" stripped of half its horrors and pitfalls. Properly managed, such an institution would be Self-supporting m a great measure, and the good it would do is incalculable. It is a work worthy of Christ" Himself and one that would crown the life of the noblest man or woman m the land who undertook it. It is a work m which any good woman and many

• good men could be .-.easily enlisted. It would '$!ss. be a :ohafity. Home, So I that no Worker of whateyer class need be ashamed to aV&U 61 its advantages.. It would, however; not be run for profit iand therefor- 1 a little cubicle, a weil^covered bed, a tasty butyniodest meal and a well-stocked-reading room v Could _c obtained for perhaps one third of what infinitely less is given for m the hoarding and lodging houses of' Wellington at present. Now* "good I friends-, brethren, and sisters, here is a suggestion for a really good work— not „ blatant self advertisement, not a- howling hounding down of other people's amusements, but a God-like task. Who will take it . and ' act npon it and begin— in ever so humble a, fashion at firstr-the task of ameliorating the social condition of the Wellington working woman-?.