THE LADIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14360, 4 February 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE LADIES.

TRAINING GIRLS. EOlt THE COLON HiS. The hj..-h-..pir.ted and enterprising young L.,°i,>a gu-i 01 uie upper auu I.IKKIIO u,ia*-i wuo is not Uouuil uy homo tics, is'b».iug drawn 1110,0 ana nioro st.-ogly towards the idea of emigrating to the Colou.es, and *eel;iug a living 111 tho Empire beyond the teas—n Canada, Soutn Africa, or New faouth Wales— rather than staying at home t-> fight in the already overcrowded market for a post as secretary, i<im-ii-alist, governess, companion, or lady , clerk. , , It was to meet the demand for a thorough train.ng in the various household arts and crafts, and 111 the care and management of a garden, pnuitryyard, orchard and farm, which is a very necessary part of the girl colonist s equipment, that Lady Frances Jialfour, Lady Burton, the Hon. Mr.s Evelyn Cecil, and a number of other ladies who 1 have Imperialism keenly at heart, gave their act.vo patronage to a scheme for starting a Goionial Training School at Arlesey, Near Hitchin, Herts. This school was opened in 1907 under the governorship of Miss Turner, h'.R.H.S., the former superintendent of the Giynde School of Gardeu.ng. Miss Turner is an ardent advocate : of emigration for girls of the upper classes. Not only is she an expert oil all matters appertaining to the management of a garden or farm, hut aiso is a distinguished lecturer on horticulture ami small holdings in tho intervals of personally supervising every detail of the entire daily work at Arlesey House, where e.ght students are in constant residence. And this work is not easy, since many of the girls have no knowledge of the practical running of a farmhousse wheal they' first arrive, and have everything to learn.

■ No servants are kept at Arlesey with , the exception of a s.ngie maid to do the roughest work, ami a gaiden boy. The students take it in turns, week by week, to act as gardeners, housemaids, or cooks, and the whole work of the farmstead, both inside and out, with its pig-styes, poultry farm, bee-hives, orchard, green-houses cucumber frames and kitchen and flower garden, covering some four acres of ground, i.s carnod on entirely by the girls themselves. Everything is kept in perfect order; the place is in a. thriving condition, and is run in the most workmanlike and profitable manner.

The training in practical housewifery Is planned so as to prepare the Arlesey students to meet with perfect equanimity a feature of colonial life which, to the untrained girl emigrant of nentlo birth, is often ono of its chief hardships, not merely the absence of any hut the roughest domestic servants but often the impossibility of getting any "hired heln" at all.

Arlescy is a big, rambling farmhouse of the cheerful, old-fashioned type, standing in about four acres of ground. Inside, it is roomy enough to provide a separate bedroom for each of the eight students.

The terms for the ordinary course of training work out at about £SO a year. The course includes housework in all its branches; plain cooking, and breadmaking; preserving and bottling fruit and vegetables; pickling and curing bacon; the care of p : gs, bees, and poultry, and the management of incubators; and, in addition, gardening in all its branches. After six months of general training, girls are allowed to specialise in riding, driving, and stable management, laundry work, dairy work nnd in simple carpentry for moderate extra fees. (Students are also nrepared for the Royal Horticultural Society and Board cf Education examinations. The girls wear the most business-like Rflrb. In the garden they may he seen in very short skirts, shirts with the sleeves rolled up to above the elbow, and the thickest of garden boots, each carrying on her own special work for the day with youthful vigour and enthusiasm quite delightful to see. • The poultry-yard is well-stocked, and contains a special incubating shed of •which two students have the entire charge for a- fortnight at a time, to learn how poultry management should be carried on, a most important branch of training for the girl eolou'st. Inside the house all is order and precision. In the kitchen may be seen a girl—the c-cok of the week—enveloped in. a huge apron, with her anus plunged in an earthenware howl of Hour, busily making bread. Students specialising in dairy-work and the management of cows spend two mornings and three afternoons a week at a neighbouring farm, where the.. farmer's wife—a noted butter maker—initiates them into tho arts of milking and butter-making, ajid teaches them the use of the various types of (.hums aud separate]s in common use, while students of laundry-work repair regularly on Tuesdays each week to the dwelling of an excellent washerwoman, where they put in a hard morning's work at the washtub, again mak.ng their way thither en Tuesday and "Wednesday afternoons, in order to le.'un how to iron ami get up the ciiteonie of Ttesday morning's work. Thus, they soon learn to turn out snowy piles of beautifully, got-up persuiial and household linen.

i Miss Turner firmly believes that for : the well-educated young gentlewoman, : equipped with a thoroughly practical ; preliminary training for colonial life, and able to work for hei'sslf, a. place is ready and waiting; in our possessions beyond the seas. Such a g.rl. if i>he takes a post as mother's help will prove a real help, and when she marries will be a true helpmate to her husband. A knowledge of ambulance and home nursing is one of the utmost value in colonial life in order to d'-'al promptly and successfully with accidents or sudden cases of illness where the girl settler's farmstead may he situated many miles from the nearest doctor, and accordingly each student is expected to go in for the conr.-<> of Joe-tun's R7id to obtain the St. John's Ambulance certificates in these two subjects. The age limit for students is nom'nally from eighteen to thirty, and Miss Turner finds twenty to twenty-five is the ideal age at which to start work at the school. (From "Every Women's . Encyclopaedia.")