HOUSEKEEPING

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3322, 14 July 1931, Page 5

HOUSEKEEPING

CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND.

AN INTERESTING COMPARISON.

We have been privileged to make some extracts from the comments of a lady who has lately come to reside in this district after a sojourn of nearly three years in England. At her expressed wish we withhold her name, but nevertheless the observations should be read with a good deal of interest. It was on a very wet and miserably cold day recently that Mrs H 1 talked of her experiences of housekeeping abroad, and as she described the English comforts in the winter-time one felt she was justified in her statement that life in England was more comfortable than in New Zealand. She confessed, however, that her first winter in London, until she became 'used to conditions and understood how to do things, was very trying. " When we first arrived," she said, " it was in the middle of August, and we lived in an hotel until we founi i where we wanted to make our home. In the hotel, of course, everything was very comfortable and the service excellent, but when I commenced housekeeping in the winter it was a different matter altogether. I did not understand how to keep warm and . how to keep things dry. Everything i seemed to be perpetually damp. My servants were very helpful, however, and I made friends who gave me helpful advice, so that by our second winter we were very comfortably settled in. We made our home at St. Albans, a delightful old cathedral town about 20 miles out of London, with an excellent' half-hourly train service, express at busy times of the day, and we remained there for the whole three years." Describing the many ways in which the English housewife has adjusted her home conditions to meet the rigours of the English winter, Mrs H—spoke of the warm cupboards which are heated fi'om a furnace in the kitchen for drying clothes, which minimise the discomforts of fog and rain. Additional cupboards set on each side of the range in the kitchen serve the same purpose. The trains, too, in the winter, she said, are much more comfortable than ours, with their upholstering and their warmth. "I simply freeze," she continued, "travelling up and down in the New Zealand trains in this weather." Mrs H— is full of praise also for the English maid, who takes quite a different view of her work, even in these modern days, from that of the colonial maid. She takes a pride in her work, and accepts it as her responsibility to look after the family. The general servant, as we know her in this Dominion, however, is practically unknown in England, where every maid has a set job, and it is very rare to find one who will do everything. Mrs H —'s home in St. Albans was a three-story house. The servants' quarters were in the attic story, the farmily rooms on the second floor, and the living • rooms and kitchen quarters on the ground floor. The house, she says, was quite easily run, and although it had none of the modern labour-saving devices and such luxuries as tiled kitchens and bathrooms, the maids were used to their work and did not complain. In addition to the household staff, Mrs H—■ employed also, when occasion demanded it, a daily woman also very capable, and married, who did parttime jobs to add to the family income. In paying this daily woman lOd an hour Mrs H—■ was paying 2d an hour more than the customary rate. Colonials, she said, are accused of spoiling their domestic staffs by paying them too much, A very good maid, trained thoroughly in her work, may be got for £1 a week, and a house or parlour maid still gets only £4O a year, or 12s 6d a week. If they stay in their job for six months the maids' uniforms, one for morning and one for. afternoon wear, are supplied, but not until the six months have expired. The hours are long. In most homes morning tea is served at 7 o'clock, and in the winter the fires must be lit well before breakfast to warm the rooms before the household comes down. Dinner is not served until half-past 7 o'clock, which means that the night hours are late. One afternoon a week and every alternate Sunday afternoon is the usual allowance of time-off.

On other points of housekeeping, Mrs H— mentioned some interesting facts. In general she found living more expensive in England than in this Dominion. In the winter, for example, the fuel and lighting bills are very high because the fires are burning all day long, and lights are necessary often as early as half-past 3 o'clock. Clothes, too, are expensive, because they must be of good quality, to stand' the wear and tear of the weather. You need better clothes and more clothes than you do in the Auckland province. In food she found meat very expensive, but very good. For English rump steak she paid 2s 4d a pound, but the Argentine chilled beef, which was very good* was sold at Is 6d or Is Bd. Greens were obtainable right through the winter and tomatoes, which came from the Canary Islands. Oranges from Spain were plentiful, but pineapples were prohibitive in price, 7s 6d being charged for a very small one. Grape fruit, which comes from South Africa, has become very popular, and is very good. The food situation in England from the producers' point of view is becoming terribly complicated through the dumping of foreign goods|,_which are being sold at ridiculously; ?eheap prices. The unemployed natujlily will buy eign article thajipfe half the price of the English or Dominion but very often, MrsT'lff— says, it is of a quality that" the average .Colonial would not give to his dog. The situation is becoming so bad that something must be done soon. .^