HOUSEWIVES OF TO-DAY.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 1, 12 April 1919, Page 3

HOUSEWIVES OF TO-DAY.

CLERGYMAN'S CRITICISM

During the recent sittings of the Influenza Commission "at Dunedin, the Rev V. G. Byran'King severely criticised the housewives of to-day in reply to questions put to him by members as to the conditions ,he. found in and around the city.

Mr D. MacLaren asked whether anything was being done in the way of instructing the housewives of the city? • Witness: There are very few housewives in the present generation. As a matter of fact, the only way to impart .hygienic instruction would be to have special films inserted at picture shows unawares. It would have to be unawares, for if they knew that anything of an instructional nature was to be shown they would not attend Mr McLaren: Do you find "widespread ignorance among housewives in the matter of attending to the sick? Witness: A vast mass of the people are very ignorant on this subject. As to fresh air. they hate" and abhor it. It is a rare thing to see" a window open in certain quarters of Dunedin, and when a window is open it is only an inch or two at most. These housewives have no idea of nursing or cooking. They leave school at an early age- and go straight into shops or factories. They spend their evenings at picture shows or prominadmg . parks or streets. Then they marry and when a child comes and contracts some ailment they have no knowledge of how to deal with it •