CONFEDERATED HOMES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1155, 17 January 1874, Page 1

CONFEDERATED HOMES.

The great domestic Biddy question seems to be severely exercising thi minds of those in England who are aj ways to be found hovering round tls outskirts of a great question and eideavouring to arrive at a useful colclusion. There are many in Otago, fe think, who look back upon their kperiences of domestic economy at hoae somewhat as Robinson Crusoe fegiircled his father's house when in he Channel for the first tine. No macer how successful the colonist has ben, there is one blot ia his comfort which the lapse of time increses rather than diminishes. The difficulty of getting reliable help in the hftse, the almost impossibility of findinj for love or money the requisite ai/ in managing a large household, are/aots staring us in the face here every/day. It is true there are a large numfer of girls growing up to womanhood aiong us, who do not seem to share the reluctance of the native (born American girls to entering ddiestic service. It is true, too, (hp Dr Featherston sends, and MrPoLiN Allan allots, an increasing nunper of a*w ayvival?, whose polepeioj ia tp

3 undertake domestic service. And yet 1 the fact remains that good cooks, liouse3 maids, helps of any kind, are rare and ) almost impossible luxuries to many i among us who could at home afford to r get assistance. We ai*e not inclined >to mourn over the fact. Although ; the immediate result is often most ha- . rising, it cannot be doubted that the difficulty is one of the most certain signs of wide-spread prosperity among ■ all classes. It is not only that more i people can afford the luxury of help in ; their domestic drudgery, but also that ' comparatively fewer girls are obliged to enter upon the life. It is something ujion which we ought to congratulate ourselves, to know that there is no compulsion — no hard necessity driving a whole class to occupy themselves in a labour "which is distasteful to them. In the language of commercial circulars, the matrimonial market is brisk, and wives in demand, a fact which says more for the real healthy tone of things than any amount of vitality in pig iron, mule twist, grey shirtings, or Hennessy's P.B. If it were possible to obtain a good servant readily, it would be a sign that the supply was on the balance with the demand, and, as a result, wages would decline gradually. We do not think that the remedy for the present universal complaint amon<r householders is to be found in pouring in such numbers of female servants as that there should no longer be a difficulty in procuring the required help. People at home, a few years ago, were seeking 1 a remedy for this same difficulty, which, was beginning to make iiself felt, by training servants in institutions especially created ■&>■ the purpose. It was, after all, a souu '-.vttot selfish way of supplying 1 the Later adventurers in this most useful branch of social science seem inclined to look for a cure rather in the direction of altered habits among employers than in altered desires among the employed. A paper lately read by Mrs King before the British Association advocated a system of confederated homes for the m.ddle classes, in which, by union and ths employment of labour-saving machines, a few domestics might perform tie work of many. To advocate such apian in England will seem to many t> propose a hideous impossibility. It vas then and there suggested that "of course English people could not be nade sociable if they would not be iociable." In the Colonies we have gob .ised to andhave fairly acclimatised many aabits which would have seemed absurd fco us on the other side the worJd. To instance only one or two, the habifc of living at hotels is decidedly upon the .increase; life in a boarding house would 'be more common if more satisfactory boarding houses were to be found. The tahh d'hote is an institution that has thoroughly taken root everywhere. May it not be that Mrs King, writing for Londoners especially, has suggested just what is wanted to meet our demand here? It seems that the experiment has been already tried with success in the " Bclgrave Mansions," which, it is said, are always full. Two other institutions — the Albert and Grosvenor Mansions — had been started on somewhat the same principle, except that they neither of them had lifts and servants in common. A few words will be sufficient to suggest to those who groan over the difficulty of getting things comfortable here upon a limited income, the immense possibilities of oconomy arising from confederation. " What wo want in our confederated homes is a plan by which the necessities of daily life shall be best supplied, and the difficulties we now have to contend with removed by the same means which have supplied wants, and multiplied a hundredfold our comfort and luxury in eveiy other department of life's work." No work such as baking, brewing, washing 1 , should be doao ij* the hoiipa, wbipb could fee

j organised outside. Neither billiard - j rooms nor libraries need form a part of J them. Hot and cold water should be be obtainable in every room where reI quired. Speaking tubes should lender unnecessary the continuous tramp up and down flights of stairs. By machinery all waste matter should be sent out of the room by a turn of the hand of the occupier of the room. Putting upon one side entirely the advantage of neighbourly association, and increased opportunities for healthy and useful intercourse among the young, it is obvious that the ideas thus .suggested would very largely conduce to the comfort of many a struggling household. It is very easy to call such notions visionary, Utopian, &c. Nothing is simpler than to damn them by declaring them unfitted to the genius of our nation. These things have been said, and will be repeated, concerning every new idea, especially if the idea 'impinges upon questions of the domestic circle. Greater changes have been made than this in the habits of our race within the last half century. Gas, we were told, would destroy the family circle gathered close round the best dips ; close stoves would destroy that comfortable homely brightness which was one of the great attractions in an English household. Nevertheless, gas has found an entrance without introducing the bHe noire of continental morals ; close stoves, to use a Hibernicisni, are on the wing, since Paterfamilias found his coal bill growing faster than his hopefuls. Whether we like it or not it seems clear that confederation and not isolation in our homes will become the custom, and probably our children will regard our present wasteful system with, contempt, and perhaps some philosopher, treatingof the doctrine of causes, will attribute to that system the selfishness which is rampant everywhere.