Editorial Comment

Progress, Volume VIII, Issue 9, 1 May 1913, Page 441

Editorial Comment

The attention paid to the production of laboursaving appliances and other conveniences for the home must be very comforting to housewives, especially New Zealand ones, rarely free from the worry of the everlasting servant question. In this number there are special articles on heating and lighting appliances, demonstrating an astonishing advancement compared with conditions only a few years ago. The help problem has been a great spur to development. So acute is the scarcity of competent domestics, genuinely able to do what the calling demands, that Parliament has placed the question among those of national importance. A few partisans are heard who say that systematic importation of domestics by the State is simply in the interests of wealthy people who can afford to do their own importing, but the real pinch of the scarcity is felt by the wives of the salaried class, who cannot afford fancy prices, nor can they keep large staffs of servants, with the result that either home or children must be neglected, or the health ruined in an heroic, often a vain attempt, to do everything single-handed. We have every sympathy with the Government’s idea of continuing an active immigration policy, and hope it will not be slackened by pressure from those who think this great country should remain the preserve of a tiny handful of population. But unfortunately, domestic service does not attract girls so strongly as factory life, with its strenuous eight hours a day. The law of supply and demand has operated so thoroughly in favour of the domestic help that we should imagine that there can be few remediable grievances of wages or working conditions. Of course, the drudgery inherent in domestic work remains to some extent, but it is rapidly diminishing, and would be 1 but a small factor if householders could take advantage of all the home appliances described in our -special articles this month. To our mind, the domestic help problem will be solved by the. mechanician rather than the statesman with an immigration policy. Eliminate some of the monotony and all the drudgery from the housewife’s duties, and the calling of the domestic will

attract girls of a good type more surely than the factory or, office does to-day. Eliminate the dirty coal tire in its old-fashioned dust-distributing grate; eliminate cooking methods which involve toil in an over-heated atmosphere ; throw out the duster, which is merely a dust-disturbed, not a dust-col-lector ; instal furniture and decorations that are not dust-traps plan the home with due regard to easy cleaning, and the result will be, if good taste has been exercised, a thousand times more satisfactory in the long run than a weak acceptance of the conrevision of orthodox ideas, of course, but it is being forced upon all of us, however conservative, by the urgency of the situation and the hopelessness of palliative remedies. Utilisation of vacuum cleaners has wrought wonders in the home. Te be able to sweep without raising dust means that there is much less work for the duster. And in regard to the latter, it is possible to obtain cheaply a material which really holds the dust, not pushes it into the atmosphere. Electricity as a lighting medium makes for improved hygenic conditions in the home. It is also considered by some to be a success as a cooking medium, but the careful housewife who uses a gas stove will not readily give up so useful, and effective an appliance. Both gas and electricity save much of the worry of cooking, by providing a constant, unfluctuating heat, easily controlled, and leaving no after-dirt. Clothes washing need not, to-day, be a steamy task, involving much - hard muscular effort. There are good appliances on the market which greatly reduce the effort required for this work, and it only remains for cheap power to be available for these mechanical aids to clear the drudgery out altogether.

One of the most brilliant modern imaginative writers, H. 0. Wells, who is also a good deal concerned about the problems of life, has given in “A Modern Utopia” his view of the ideal domestic arrangement:—

“The effectual abolition of a labouring and servile class will make itself felt in every detail. . . . The room is of course very clear and_ clean and simple; not by any means cheaply equipped, but designed to economise the labour of redding and repair just as much as possible. It is beautifully proportioned and rather lower than most rooms I know on earth. There is no fireplace, and I am

perplexed by that until find a thermometer beside six switches on the wall. Above this switchboard is a brief instruction: ‘One switch warms the floor,’ which is not carpeted, but covered by a substance like soft oilcloth; one waims the mattress (which is of metal with resistance coils threaded to and fro in it) ; and the others warms the wall in various degrees, each directing current through a separate system of resistances. The casement does not open, but above, flush with the ceiling, a noiseless rapid fan pumps air out of the room. The air enters by a Tobin shaft. There is a recess dressing-room, equipped with a bath and all that is necessary to one’s toilet, and the water, one remarks,, is warmed, if one desires it warmed, by passing it through an electrically heated spiral of tubing. A cake, .of soap drops out of a store machine on the turn of a handle, and when you have done with it, you drop that and your soiled towels, and so forth, which also are given you by machines, into a little box, through the bottom ofwhich they drop at once .and sail down a smooth shaft. A little notice tells you the price of your room, and you gather the. price is doubled if you do not leave the toilet as you found it., Beside the bed, and.to.be lit at night by a handy switch over the pillow, is a little clock, its face flush with wall. The room has no corners to gather the dirt, wall meets floor with a gentle curve, and the apartment could be swept out effectually by a few strokes of a mechanical sweeper. The door frames and window frames are of metal, rounded and impervious to draughts. You are politely requested to turn a handle at the foot of your bed before leaving the room, and forthwith the frame turns up into a vertical position, and the bedclothes hang airing. You stand at the doorway and realise that there remains not a minutes work for anyone to do. Memories of the foetid disorder of many an earthly bedroom after, a night’s rise float across your mind. And you must not imagine that this rustless, dustless, spotless, sweet apartment as anything but beautiful. Its appearance .is a, little unfamiliar, of course, but'all the muddle of dust-collecting hangings that cover the witless earthly bedroom . . . are gone.” * * *

Eastbourne may have respect for the axiom which forbids people to try to give their grandmothers lessons on the art of sucking eggs, but the citizens have' every right to be proud of the fact that they have led the way for Greater Wellington to follow in the matter of beautifying their surroundings, by planting trees and shrubs, by using the art of the landscape gardener, and paying the florist under contribution to grow magnificent blooms in beds, in parterres, in hedgerows, and the open spaces of their township. When youth means a thing it generally means it. In this case the Eastbourne Beautifying Society has already eighty annual subscribers, and a strong committee, with the ex-Mayor, Mr. H. W. Shortt, at its head, and representatives from Day’s Bay, Bona Bay, and Muritai. This committee will be increased shortly, and sub-committees will be set up to divide the organising work, the object of which is to raise money for all the good objects the Society has in view. There will be a committee of work, another of entertainments, another of games and pas-

times, such as hockey, tennis and the rest, not forgetting the apple of the suburban eye when by the water in a bright, warm climate, namely swimming, to which Eastbourne is especially partial. Already large numbers of residents, both of the baby borough , and the greater city, have intimated their willingness to donate large sums in aid of the works contemplated. It is a society intended to be absolutely self-supporting, and a remarkable feature is that the actual work is to be all done by the members—the tree-planting, work, that is to say. This work (is to. be started at once, so as not to lose the season, under the supervision of the Borough Council, and we may soon see the germ of the beautiful city of the future by the sea taking form under our eyes. There are grand spots for work of this kind within the bounds of this borough. It possesses some very picturesque bush, which should not be allowed to disappear, according to the universal law which condemns the bush to death in every part of New Zealand, in spite of its great beauty and most original. charm. By judicious “plantation contiguous” a very pleasing effect may be secured, quite unique amono- the cities of the Dominion which are far from the picturesque haunts of . the fern and the grass tree, the Bahikatea and the beautiful Eimu Pine. The ' popular idea, based on past experience, is that the Goth, the Vandal, and the Small Boy, have practically forbidden all attempts to beautify, to embellish, to rescue from ugliness. But on the heels of the experience which undoubtedly, justifies this conclusion, there is another which is encouraging, because of its neutralising power over the former. These outcasts have souls, situated on the'good side of each of them. If you get to that soul you can do anything with them. In the States and in Australia, where these people destroyed Everything planted and loveable, for no reason but that they were what they were, the soul was reached, and lo! trees and flowers and banks of moss green, and clumps of ferns fit for the greenhouse, and every flower that blooms of the rarest and the simplest, all alike are unmolested. There is not a fence or a proclamation, much. less, a man trap, on the premises, and all is preserved without damage, and treated with a reverence telling of a newly awakened vision. .The same can be done here. Eastbourne is going to show how successfully. .i* * »

Talking of planting trees, the time for the report of the Commission on Forestry is drawing near. The last news published of any importance related to the prisoners employed in the planting. That the humanitarian point of view is the one which ought to prevail we have no hesitation in. declaring emphatically. This, however, isHbWtEe way, as we said awhile back The great question before the Dominion is the creation of a -great department of forestry complete, in every branch and all details, able to maintain-a lame expert population of foresters by the use of their knowledge ■of how to make the most of the existing forests, and how to plant new ones, and how to work these jto the best advantage. Upon this Question the Corbmission must report. If it does not make t.ljiE report big with this point its report will be of vepy little value -