The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1911. THE DOMESTIC HELPER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 1, 11 December 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1911. THE DOMESTIC HELPER.

On December Ist, in the Now Soutli Wales Legislative Assembly, Mr Beeby submitted a new schedule to the Industrial Arbitration Bill, wherein ha regrouped the trades and callings and specifically enumerated the constituents of each group. The “Daily Telegraph,” however, points out that while the change makes for nothing but particularity, there is one thing that, is missing from the Bill, and that is a guarantee that when wages all round are raised, the purchasing power of the wage will not become largely diminished. Obviously, however, the • elfcct will bo to raise prices generally, so that in the cud only the few who may now bo suffering special injustices will be benefited. The “Telegraph” further reminds its readers that this has been the case in New Zealand, where the workers find that they have not very substantially improved their positions by legislative efforts which defied economic principles. By 31 votes to 20 the House declined to pass an amendment to exclude domestic servants from the scope of the Bill. Servants are difficult to get now, for reasons which die measure cannot hope to cure. Under an entirely mistaken view, many young women prefer to go into factories and shops rather than go into homes, however comfortable, to per-

form domestic duties that manifestly are more in keeping with the scheme of tilings that ought to be. It is v free country, however, and they arc inti tied to please themselves. The pity is that meanwhile they are unfitting, instead of fitting, themselves for the highest duty of their sex—ohat of becoming wives and mothers. Possibly the same thing applies to New Zealand when it is said that it s because the domestic helper is ral ! - d by her Christian name, while the aetory or shop worker is styled ‘Miss,” accounts to some’extent for the anomaly. As to that, many householders have held that the Christian name is otic that should bo reserved for members of the family, and that the help should be distinguished in the mlinary social way. But a wages board can scarcely intervene in questions of that nature, so, where is the remedy to come from ? High wages

ire now being paid for domestic service, and to improve restrictions by aw may only add to the troubles of the wives and mothers in the community. It is a curious thing that ■o many young women object to housework as if it wore derogatory, and yet the women in almost every family rave to perform such duties every day of their lives. Australian and New Zealand will yet have to look with a more friendly eye on the Japanese as a possible solution of the ever-grow-

ing domestic difficulty. THE LONG-DISTANCE TELEPHONE. Long-distance telephony with good results is being undertaken at Home, and the experiments which have been made recently to establish connection between London and Switzerland have proved a complete success. The distance covered during the tests,

which wore made with the co-opera-

tion of the French and Swiss telephone authorities, was between 1000

and 1100 miles. It had been found that, with the appliances at present in use, it was not possible to get

further. Thu communication between Geneva and Basic, the two centres in Switzerland to which through communication was made over the wire, was remarkably clear and, although there is no chance of the undertaking

becoming a commercial one for some time to come, owing to the many arrangements that have to be made with the two foreign Governments concerned, ultimately, there is no doubt that the telephone will to a considerable extent displace the telegraph between London and the two cities named. “We have been enabled to establish telephone .communication with. Switzerland,” said an official, “by means of the new ‘loaded’ cable which wo laid down last year, and which, being fitted with induction coils, is a considerable improvement over the older ones in use. The French Government have now under consideration the laying down of a similar cable from France to England, but the work upon it has not yet been begun.” Questioned as to whether there was now any demand in commercial quarters for such a longdistance telephone, the official said that no particular desire had been evinced for telephone communication beyond, Paris. “The Paris wire,” lie went on, “is, of course, a very busy one owing to Stock Exchange transactions between London and the French capital, but beyond that 1 do not think there would he a great traffic, although in the summer many visitors to Switzerland might bo glad to speak through to London, instead of using the telegraph. The experiments, however, have been made really to tost the new cable, and before any definite commercial use can bo made of the telephone to Switzerland the question will have to lie submitted by the Foreign Office to the French and Swiss Governments, one of the principal points to be considered being that of price.” EGYPTOLOGY. In the course of a recent lecture delivered before an English Society, Mr F. F. Ogilvie, an authority on Egyptology, described the excavations recently made by the American expedition in the neighbourhood of the Great Pyramids, of which hitherto very little had been heard. He was also able to place before his audience some quite new evidence and ideas, especially on the subject of the •Sphinx, about which there had always licon a great deal of speculation. The American expedition under Dr. ReisnoY had found a groat body of 'material, works of art ( and objects of religious : use, which were made in the time of 'the Pyramid huildets. 1 Mr Ogilvie proceeded to describe the work done by Dr. Roisner, the principal result of which was the discovery at the base of the Third Pyramid of"a small mortuary temple or chapel, in which were a number of portrait statues of Mycerinus at different ages. The headdress shown on those statues was.', found by Dr. Roisner t-o he the same as that shown on the Sphinx, and as this fashion in headdress was never used in any other period of Egyptian history except one very much later, with which the Sphinx could not possibly bo associated, Dr. ■Reisner’s discovery fixed the date cf the Sphinx as contemporaneous with that of the Pyramids. There was evidence to suggest that the, Sphinx was an adjunct of the mortuary temple of the Second Pyramid, and was a portrait statue of the Pharaoh of that Pyramid, Cephren. It was therefore incorrect to speak of the Sphinx as “she.” Another piece of evidence which helped to fix the date of the Sphinx was furnished by a sculpture found in the temple at the base of the Pyramid of Mycerinus. The figures in this had the eyes painted found in a peculiar way, and Dr. Roisner found traces of the same eye painting on the Sphinx.