INSPECTOR OF DOMESTIC SUBJECTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19102, 22 February 1924, Page 4

INSPECTOR OF DOMESTIC SUBJECTS.

MISS M. DYER’S APPOINTMENT. LONDON UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE, (Feom Oct Own Cobhespondent.) LONDON, January 3. Miss Margaret Dyer, who has been appointed to the position of Inspector of Domestic Subjects in the Secondary and Technical Schools in New Zealand, is a student of Cambridge University, whore she passed the natural science examinations (botany, chemistry, and psychology) in 1908. In those days no degrees were granted to women at Cambridge, but last year’s concessions act retrospectively, and before she leaves for New Zealand she will have the M.A. degree conferred upon her. In 1909 she obtained the Board of Education diploma for cookery. In 1908 the London University started a course of Domestic Science, and this was carried on in a small way until, in 1911, Miss Dyer was appointed to organise the Department of Household Work. It was not till 1915, however, that proper premises were built for what is now known as the King’s College for Women, in South Kensington. Here the department is housed, and there are laboratories for chemistry, physics, psychology, biology, and hygiene, and there is a residential hostel for the students. Miss Dyer has been lecturer-in-charge of the Household Science Department up to the present time. The London University is the only one in England which grants degrees in Domestic Science to its students, though several other universities have been considering the matter for some years. During the war Miss Dyer organised, under the Red Cross Society, special classes for cooks required to manage the large kitchens for military hospitals abroad, and did experimental work for the Canteen Board. An interesting investigation which she has teen pursuing lately for the Pood Investigation Department of the Scientific and Industrial Department of the Government has been the cooking of whale meat. This was done at the request of the Colonial Office in view of the small profits being made out of the whaling industry at .Falkland Islands and elsewhere. The idea was to produce tinned whale, and thus add to the profits of the industry. It was found that the flesh of the young whale was rather insipid, but that the fresh meat of the adult was quite palatable. If kept for any time, however,; it developed an unpleasant flavour owing to the oxidisation of the fat Even cold storage failed to preserve the flavour. The oooking, too, had a tendency to bring out the unpleasant flavour. In the circumstances it is doubtful if tinned whale will ever become popular, although there are three factories in America producing it in small quantities at present. -for the first six months of 1921 Miss Dyer was granted leave to visit Canada and the IJnited States. There she made herself familiar with • the Domestic Science systems carried on in the universities, practically all of which, grant degrees in the subject, and have done so for a good number of years. It was in Canada that Miss Dyer obtained the desire to see more of the dominions, and in obtaining the New Zealand position she not only gratifies this desire, bat, in view of the position being a new one, she finds scope for her pioneering instincts. Miss Dyer has always spent part of her holidays on walking tours, and she is naturally looking forward to a closer acquaintance with the mountains of New Zealand. She will probably leave on February 7, bat it is only this morning that she has received definite permission from her board to sever her connection with the London University.