WOMAN'S WORLD.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10604, 5 November 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

WOMAN'S WORLD.

Home Arts and Domestic Arts

By this time most of us know what is 'meant by. "Home or Domestic Science." At least we have pretty well gathered what- those who have the subject at heart wish to imply by such a termor definition. It reallv amounts to tins: "Study at first hand the various scientific principles which underlie the proper conduct of a household or institution and the bringing up of the young. Further, it means the study ot physics, chemistry, biology, and bacteriology, so far as to obtain a- scientific education in the principles which- uncierlie the whole organisation of home life. In the face of such a technical statement it is no wonder that some of the delegates to a woman's conference recently held in London became rather alarmed, when Mrs Sedgwick came to the rescue by declaring that, although home science of this sort mignt be or great interest "as a_ science," true housekeeping must be a thing of the spirit. According to her, no physics or chemistry, nor even bacteriology, had m them the. real root of the matter then urgently in question. In fact, the description of "Home or Domestic Science" was, in the face of things, misleading and mischievous, and she preferred the term "Home Arts and Domestic Arts,"- the distinction between the art and the science of housewifery being the distinction between a home that was really a home and one that was- nothing more than a, so to say, very efficient piece of machinery.