WOMEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11948, 6 March 1917, Page 4

WOMEN.

THAT MONSTRIUS REGIMENT

AT THE BACK OF THE FRONT,

(From Our Lady Correspondent.) LONDON, January 12.

If there is an unemployed woman i" this effete old country left by the time we have settled up -with the War Lord, it will not be for lack of variety in the call sent out to her for help. Strongholds of masculinity are falling fast. It is now breathed that one specially sue reel will fall ~oon. For it is said on credible authority that the War office will soon he asking for women workers, presumably chiefly for the. Paymaster':! department in France, to replace, soldier..; transferred to more active service.

This da s of service is an enterprise that professional women have for a long time felt, was overdue. As long ago as the taking of the National Register thev volunteered for "'clerical work in France," knowing that they wen* periiitiy able there,, as in England, to do the simple or elaborate routine office work that has kept the base towns full of men. There aro already a few lMip.lishwotr.en in French munition works : upend tending the girl workers.

At first sight housingthe.se War Office workers presents the greatest difficulty, for in France, as in this country, housing war workers is a. matter of great anxiety. But we have already women's organisations experienced in this sort of enterprise, and one is sure that they will rise to the occasion- should thus measure- be, adopted.

Another attempt is being made "i'-o break into that most conservative preserve—the law. feminists here hope the New Zealand example will be followed at last.

Within the next few days women conductors will be seen on the tube railways. This is a measure that, lias boon ;u)ticijxn.c(l ever since women have become successful 'bus conductors. 'Hi e:>e dear things arc very capable. Ono petite hut strong-minded one J heard in Pi'-cadiliy Circus haranguing a pushing, clamouring rr.ou of .welldressed people ; "Stand back there; you're like a lot. of wild beasts and not human people!" [is sheer truth struck thoo inhuman people in ih« face. 1 can we!l credit- (he influential provincial paper which -.ays. •• As collectors of tidu'is tee girls arc certainly the superior oi' the men in and courtesy this Iron) a mere man is much. He goes 0:1 to fray: " H is surprising that- work in the tube-; lia-i been kept. a-- a man's preserve tor tr, lung. Conducting a I\ibo train is not; very exacting work, especially now (hat it is the general custom to have hanging scats for the conductors to rest on between stations. It is monotonous work, and owing i-> the atmosphere below ground, not particularly bracing." The while the more enterprising are faring forth even to France, at the back of the front the stay-at-home women a.ro harder put to it than ever to make ends meet. *Till now the Food Controller has followed--in public—a policy of masterly inactivity, with his ducal headquarters. Grosvenor House, which has been lent by the Duke of "Westminster, whose- town house it. is. Behind the scene- in all iU setting of priceless Rembrandts, Rubens, Turners and the like, he has been busy ialking to bakers confectioners, et- sic omnia. One t-liing he is believed to favour—forbidding the use of new bread. It is a. pity that he doesn't think of a way introduced down under—dry baking—then the bakers boy on his early morning round can only deliver bread of it-he day before. The idea supposed to be in favour here of forbidding ihe sale of bread less than twelve hours baked is propounded for economy's ■sake, for stale bread, as everybody knows, "goes further" than new bread ... to adopt the measure for health's sake would bo asking too nr.uch even in an age when the eugmist- rages and the food value faddist is rampant. Hut- to-day brought forth the edict. " The price of potatoes of the. 19111 crop is fixed aI, a ton this month and next, with a rising scale, for later months. The maximum price for seed potatoes is £l2 a lon. " After January 20. millers must increase the percentage of flour extracted from wheat by H per cent. Alternately they may add h per cent of barley, maize, rice or out flo'ur. anil, optionally, they may voluntarily increase the percentage ground by a further <> per cent.

" Wheat may not be used oxrcpt- as seed or to make flour. Animals may nor. be fed with it. " No grains required for food or fencing stuffs may be given to Romr birds. "The maximum retail price for chocolates is fixed at threepence an ounce, and for other sweetmeats twopence an. ounce. " Sugar or chocolate mny not., be used cxternnllv on cakes or pastry. " No manufacturer may use for sugar confectionery or chocolate more than 50 nor cent of the amount used by hnn in 1915. " No milk produced between now and April 1 may be used in chocolate manufacture." . H is cheorin?—such is the inherent weakness of humanity—to know that the United States, rich as it is in munitions money, is in bad straits. There the increase in wages has' never kept pace—where, indeed, has it?—with the rise in cost of living. New York is crying for municipal food shops and the commandeering of stored tood. To return to London, the cultivation of vacant land is going on apace. A good deal has been done on the quietwithout any Press puffing. Personally, I was impressed early last summer with a splendidly cultivated plot of laud adjoining a church club in a North London suburb. Its cabbages were a treat, and it was a model of intensive [arming, the spaces between the lines of one crop utilised for another. Tins cultivation was under taken by the members twelve months ago, and they have already got a good return for their spade work.

All tho world over Mr S. F. Edge, tho veteran and pioneer motorist, is known. What is perhaps less known is that on retiring from active life he wont "on tho land." He has been called up to bo Assistant Food Controller, and is,though retired, far from resting. He has a prettily wooded estate in Sussex, an ideal place for carrying out his pott theory of the " simple lifo " for animals. His handsome black Berkshire pigs are allowed to wander at will about the woods, rooting where they please, while the cows and poultry, too, have " gone hack to the land." lie has been very successful with the breeding of stock and hj; one of the few gentlemen fanners who luive niatlo tho game pay, and payVell. 'l\{~ prize pigs are often sold for oOOp; cr-eh. Every one of these interesting bosuu; is weighed weekly, and tho life history of every animal on the IVrm i* it corded. This is, of course, tho ri,:bt man to h-wc wlimi the Board of Agriculture ; s urging the case of tho '* &euitenian a<pays the riat." The trouble i.<, of course, the ovor-eonscientiousnees of public hoalt.h authorities, which has made pig-keeping hitherto possible only in rural district?. But. restrictions are to go by the board—within reason, pet pigs may become a town fashion, even thou eh one draws the line at hanging the baby up on tho wall so that the family pip: may snore comfortably in its cradle, 'a vision of the future portrayed by a tame artist.