HOW THE POOR LIVE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3003, 4 October 1911, Page 89

HOW THE POOR LIVE.

By. Mas W. Pember Reeves.

THE GOLDEN SOVEREIGN. NO FRESH MILK.

(Special to the Otago Daily Times.) «M.}oy s <;■■ ' in... «■ ;"■ - ■ Here'are the averages of four womeh's weekly -budgets- for sii weeks. Each woman- has five to feed and 20s a week to spend. The interesting point? in this comparison is -the balance between spending srnore on food and less on ..rent; or more on rent and less- on food.- Which pays best in health to the family? Family—Five to feed ?-Mrs A.; Mr A. ('bus conductor) boy 12 years old, boy 10 years old,' girl eight. Wages, 20s. , Allowance, 20s. Expenditure. Rent, 9b, three good rooms high off the . ground; bread, Is lid,, nine loaves; meat, Is 6d. No variety in menu; bread and potatoes with meat twice a week ; "No fresh milk. Average ex- ' penditure per head on food, Is 3£d - a week. - • • - • This family is tuberculous and very delicate, but no children have died. An elder girl away from home taking care of a relation has. consumption. One boy has a; short leg and wears an iron in his boot. The mother and two children have ulcerated eyes. The high rent is paid because the mother thinks they can dp without food- better than they can-sleep in damp rooms near the ground, where the air is less pure. Mis 8., the wife of a printer's labourer, hasSfive to feed, girls of six and four and a boy. of-two: The wages are z3e and the -allowance 20s. They pay 8s a week for three fair rooms with yard, but damp. They feed generally the same as the previous family, but more generously- (15 loaves and 2s 6d worth of meat; no fresh milk). Average per head on food, Is s£d per"; .week. , This is also a tab,ere.ulou6- and very delicate family, but nonchildrenhave died. Two are in and Out- of -hospital constantly with consumption of t* the bowels. The mother is very undersizfid. She pays 8s a week in order to get three rooms near her husband's work. She buys cheaper margarine and more bread than Mrs A.

Mrs C, the wife of a potter's labourer, has also five to»feed, boys of eight and six, a girl of four. The wages are 20s, and the allowance the same. Six shillings are the rent of two rooms of fair size, one on ground and one on first floor. They have some variety in menu, more vegetables and some fruit, but no fresh milk; 14 loaves of bread and 2s lOd worth of meat. Average per head on foo'd, Is llfd per week. This is a legs delicate family, and no children have died. The mother is anaemic, but the children seem free from obvious disease. The rent is average. Three children in one bed and parents in another all sleep in one room upstairs. Mrs D., a carman's wife, paying 4s 6d for two wretched rooms, very damp and in a cramped' position, fares much the same, except that she gives her family much more variety in food; green vegetables and fruit twice a week. This is another delicate and tuberculous family, five children having ; died. All are very small,-" - and .with chronic coughs and bronchial trouble. The rent is abnormally low because of the miserable accommodation. All the family sleep in one room lower than the alley way outside.

AN AVERAGE PROPOSITION. Everyone of these four women is an excellent manager—a steady hard-working woman, and fikely in the course of nature to have several more children. The husbands will be very lucky if they do not get out of work. , They certainly will not get higher wages than they do at present. They are serious men, very steady and trustworthy. It will be noticed that three of them keep nothing back, but give all their wages to their wives. This is a common practice when the pay is as low as 20s a week. When the wages are 26s the men often keep from 2s 6d. to even 4s to themselves. It seems to be ft convention in that class to give the wife as much as 20s a week if possible, but it is, thought generous to give her mote," whatever the wages are. The inference from these four cases is

what I have gathered from many others. Money wisely laid out on rent is as well spent as on a greater quantity or variety of food. Mrs A., who spends 9s out of 20s on rent, and Is 3£d per head a week on food, has a better record than Mrs D., who spends 4s 6d a week on rent and 2s l£d per head a week on food. Mrs 8., who spends 8s in order to have two very email bedrooms besides a living i room, is lees lucky than Mrs C, who pays 6s for two rooms* which are of decent size j but in a less quiet neighbourhood. Mrs i 8., however, cannot help herself. She must be near her husband's woTk- If the women could pick and choose it would be well to preach care in the choice of | rooms. But they must go where they . can. They will, of course, cling to a cheap place because it allows them more to eat—with the disastrous results some- I times shown in the case of Mrs D. I . spoke to a woman once saying how sorry I was for her—she had lost six children. She looked pathetically at me and said: " What could I have done if they had all lived ?" I A TELLING ARGUMENT. Still one more, comparison is necessary. • Here are three women all with 23s a week. All paying about the same rent, j but with different numbers to feed : j Mrs A., four to feed.—Housekeeper wages, 265. Allowance, 235. Average on food per head, 3e a, week. Mrs 8., five to feed.—Fish-fryer wages, 255. Allowance. 235. Average for food per head, 2s 9£d a week. i Mrs.C, seven to feed.—Potter's labourer wages, 255. Allowance, 235. Average for food per head Is 7d a week. The inference from this is so clear that the people concerned can hardly miss it —namely, that the fewer children you have, the greater comfort will there be all round. -'■■•■ PITY THE CHILDREN. Not one of the families visited in this inquiry ever take any fresh milk. From one to two tins of third-quality preserved milk at 2£d, or 3£d a tin is all that is taken. Every one of the families has growing children." It would be as senseless to order milk for babies whose fathers earn a pound a week as it would be to order motor cars. Milk costs 4d a quart. Milk for an infant costs from Is 6d to 3s a week, according to age. When the family average on food is Is 2d, or even Is lid, it is not possible for the baby to be put on separate diet. If the mother can nurse she is sure to do so because it is cheaper and less trouble. The difficulty is, however, that a mother fed on Is 2d a week cannot give her baby nourishing milk, and when the child is unsatisfied it cries and pines till she is driven to buy, and of ten to borrow for it, a "dummy " teat to keep it quiet and to give it some of the condensed skim milk which the rest of the children have with their tea. : : : : . ■■• ..! This milk has printed .on the ;tine,. in large red letters.: _".Not recommended as food for infants." When the manufacturer, himself dpes, not;, recommend his milk as food for-infants'it is likely that the milk will not-he much use to the infants. But what else: can the mother give ? The child who is weaned has to live on the- same food ;as rest of the family—that is, the' cheapest ! fbod the parents can discover. ; It v ib not: good for the child that this should.be so, but what is anybody to do? When the parents.are already sober and ■ industrious arfd economical it is ho tise these virtues to them. Their ."children are nnderfed, badly clothed, crowded three and four into a bed in spite of all their economy and industry and sobriety. • The one clear line of action which' these parents recognise is that it is a mistake to have more than two children. The results of this conviction are indescribably tragic in some cases. It is clear j that to bring up even two children decently at least 30s a week is necessary in ! East, and South London. For a family , of five, or six at least £2 should be the housekeeping allowance. - THE GREAT WANT. These families are. without exception belonging to the great inarticulate mass of working people who are paid too little and worked too long* hours to be able to .organise!; The great trade unions know ' nothing of them and do nothing for them. I They work overtime without extra pay. J They work seven days a. week in many cases. They have no time to read or to study affairs. They know nothing of politics. They are not stupid or low or dissipated, but they are narrow and tired and timid. They have excellent qualities and a strength of character which is surprising, but the choice before them is either to have very few children or to see their families starved and stinted. To the outside observer there are other ways : to raise the minimum adult wage or to take collective responsibility for the children. Probably many a New Zealand employer has sighed at the want of just such a class of steady, respectable, humble, work people. But those very employers would be the first to regret' the introduction of such a class —nearly always anaemic and tuberculous, unable to concentrate or undertake responsibility, incapable of understanding anything new. The health of any New Zealand community would be definitely lowered by my poor Lambeth workers and their families until the pure air and good food and better wages of New Zealand had so improved their health thai they had be- | come as independent and clear-headed and ' strong-bodied and, therefore, troublesome to employers as any other of the free- j born New Zealand working classes. i