Prior to the change in February 1966 [See "Metrication"], money was expressed with a slash between the pounds [?], shillings and pence. 4/6 represented four shillings and sixpence… 54 pence. This was the amount that a sewing mistress could claim per hour for teaching the girls to sew at a one-teacher school run by a male Head Teacher. If the Teacher was a married man, his wife was usually the incumbent, and following the monthly claim for ‘services rendered’ the arrival of payment for a four-week month of ?1/16/- was a welcome addition to the meagre salary of the time. Family coffers swelled.
Single male Head Teachers hired a local lady who would attend the school for one afternoon each week to teach sewing to the girls while he taught a personally-selected craft on the school veranda or under the school. Leather-work and basket-weaving were favourite crafts.
In the days before any form of adult assistance in schools, the weekly visit of the sewing mistress was a welcomed interlude. Just to talk to another adult about anything especially about what one was doing in the school; and receiving feed-back from a community representative was a welcome break to routine.
4/6 AN HOUR
[Tune: "Million Dollar Baby"]
When I was transferred out to Woop Woop
There was a girl I got to know
And she became my sewing mistress
For I loved to see her so.
From one to three each Thursday arvo
She’d ply the needle and the spool
But I considered it essential
To detain her after school.
She was such a cutie
She had me in a whirl -
I had extra duty
Time-tabled for that girl…. [And incidentally]
If you should ever visit Woop Woop
Just step inside the schoolie’s door
To meet my sewing mistress baby
And the mother, now, of four.
