NEWS from one hundred years ago: A TIRED MOTHER

A working-class woman who signs herself ‘A Tired Mother’ has a letter today in the Poverty Bay Herald in which she calls for the state to step in and help women in her position. ‘As the mother of eight living children, all school age and under ... I can say quite honestly that a mother who has to make ends meet on a labourer’s wage to cover everything required for a family of ten is practically a slave, with the same old grind year in, year out, with never a spell, making, patching, washing, scrubbing, to say nothing of worrying and nursing. ... Quite recently, we were told what a great service one of our local farmers had rendered to the district and country by rearing good sheep. Is my service any less if I turn out eight New Zealanders ... ?’ Tired Mother will have to wait a few more years before she can get any income support from the state; the Reform government in 1926 will begin a system of ‘Family Allowance’ for poor families with three or more children, but even then the allowance will be little more than £5 a year for each of those children and mothers will need to prove they are married, morally respectable, and not Asian.
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Poverty Bay Herald, 14 October 1920