WOMEN IN COUNCIL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 5, 7 January 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

WOMEN IN COUNCIL.

While the clang of the hammer has been resounding in our dockyards and a universal paean of 'See, the Conquering Hero Comes' has been accompanied by the bellicose breathings of the press, the tenth annual conference of the National Union of Women Workers, a peaceful _-ix hundred, has been meeting quietly at Norwich, the native city of Harriet Martineau and Elizabeth Fry. The value of their work will, I fear, be overlooked in the National Excitement, but the conduct of the meeting, the temperate nature of the speeches, and above all the thorough grasp of their subject displayed by the speakers should prove the strongest argument not only for the extension of tho suffrage to women,, but for the removal Of all the obstructions that debar them from the professions and from ta'ing parl- in the business of public life. The conference was not one of aristocratic philanthropists to,exchange.a few platitudes on the miserable lot of the masses, to agree over a cup of.afternoon tea that it was very hard, but that they ought <o work with resignation in that sphere to which it had pleased God to call them, tc subscribe a five-pound note and to return home with 'the gratifying- feeling that their duty had been done.' Those who assembled at Norwich were women who work for women and amongst women. The Union is now a National Council tor all women engaged in social, educational

or philanthropic work; its nucleus was a small body of women working amongst women and girls. A mere list of the names of the speakers and the subjects treated by them would take up a column of my space, but I am sure that you will all be interested in knowing a little of ihe chief figures of the conference. At its head is Mrs Alfred Booth, American by birth, English by marriage, her husband being the brother of Mr Charles Booth, author of 'Life and Labour of the People.' Her home is in Liverpool, where she devotes much attention to the Ladies'- Sanitary Association and the Enquiry and Employment Bureau, for Educated Women. Miss Clifford, with her kindly face, silvery hair, and Quaker costume, is a Poor Law Guardian at Bristol and President of the Home Work Section of the Conference. Miss Margaret Irwin, after a brilliant University career, is now Secretary of the Glasgow Council for Women's Trades, was one of the Lady Commissioners on the Labour Commission, and is an authority or women's employment. Miss Sproule is the Inspector of Domestic Employment in the West Riding of the Yorkshire County Council, and has technical education at her fingers' ends. Head Deaconess Gilmore is a sister of the late Mr William Morris; Miss Katherine Twining has so entwined herself into the hearts of all she meets that the name of Sister Katherine is a household word; Mrs Frances Ashwell is Secretary of the Manchester and Salford Women's Trade Union Council; and Mrs Rendall is the wife of Dr. Rendall, until lately Principal of University College, Liverpool, where she was prominently connected not only with the women students but with all the ladies' clubs and institutions. The conference would not be complete without some titled ladies, and they are far from being purely ornamental. Lady Laura Ridding is the wife of the Bishop of Southwell, a Poor Law Guardian, and President of the Women's League and several Women's Unions; Lady Knightley is a pillar of the G.F.S., the Primrose League, the Working Ladies' Guild and Diocesan Societies; the Countess of Meath is the founder of the Brabazon Home for invalids of the G.F.S., the Meath Home of Comfort for -«and_ Brahazon -House- in Lon-

' don for young women who have to earn their own living; Lady Battersea, who has a lovely country home at Overstrand, near Cromer, is President of several temperance societies and a visitor of the female convict prison tit Aylesbury. These are but samples of a host of women workers, each of whom is a specialist in some particular line, besides having several irons in the educational fire. The five days of the conference were crammed full of earnest work, and the junketings were comparatively few, the chief being a party at the palace given by the Bishop of Norwich and Mrs Sheepshanks to welcome the visitors. As might be expected, maternity, the care and education of the child and the youth, the protection and nursing of the sick and weak in body and mind, proved the. chief topics of discussion. Politics were barred, except that every now and again the necessity was urged of bring- , ing pressure to bear on local authorities, e.g., to consider the interests of girls and women in the formulation of a scheme of secondary education by the county councils or of petitioning Parliament when the bill for the registration of nurses and mid wives comes up, or of supporting a bill to increase the power of guardians to take control of neglected or deserted children which has been promoted by the State Children's Aid Association. The prevailing tone of the conference might be expressed by the words of that popular recitation, 'The Mother and Her Child Were There.' Let me tell you of some of the subjects discussed. Lady Laura Ridding read a paper on the necessity for the promotion of training of nurses by county councils and the organisation of rural nurses; Sister Katherine followed on similar lines by advocating the registration of properly qualified midwives. But Mrs Gamp was not to be sent about her business off-hand. The daughter of Canon Howell had a word to say for Sairey, for in her own neighbourhood out of 600 births but one mother had died. The advisability of including maternity allowances amongst the benefit of friendly societies was raised in discussion on those societies arising from papers on tbe subject. Miss Collet, of the Labour Department (who is a regular heckler with pertinent questions), queried, ought not men to be asked to take their share of maternity allowances? Opinions differed on this point as well as on the advisability of mixed friendly societies and mixed courts of such socie-

The child was the raison d'etre of a preliminary mothers' meeting. Lady Leicester dwelt upon the necessity of moral training being made tbe work of the home, and Mrs Booth advocated the natural co-education of little boys and girls. 'Our Workhouse Boys' were the special care of Miss Violet-Hunt, who related her experience of boys' clubs and advocated an organisation for befriending boys when leaving the workhouse much as girls are aided by the Metropolitan Association for befriending- young servants. Mrs Barnett, of Toynbee Hall, urged the necessity for legislation on behalf ot 'Children in Need of Legal Protection,' the waifs out of whose misery exposed in the streets the parents extract alms from the compassionate passers-by.

'The Care and Nursing of the Epileptic,' 'The Care and Education of Deaf Mutes,' 'The Care and Training of the Feebleminded,' were papers that showed how carefully their readers had been studying suffering humanity. State homes for epileptics were urfged. It is impossible to exaggerate the good work that is being done by private effort for the ill and the wounded, but I think the time has really come, though perhaps not 'the man' or woman, when the State should take over all the hospitals, organise them upon some system, and make all citizens contribute their share, instead of leaving the support of hospitals so largely dependent on private contributions. Every Saturday almost we have a box shaken under our noses in aid of some institution.

Technical education received a fair share of attention. Miss Sproule was responsible for the most interesting paper. She advocated—and I am sure you will agree with her—that every girl should be taught some definite trade, business, or profession, that as in the middle classes the best opening for women was commercial work, a special commercial and properly systematised commercial department should be part of every secondary school's curriculum. Girls' training, she said, .nowadays needs to be as much specialised as men's. Agriculture, poultrykeeping, gardening (especially for female inebriates), dispensing, dairy work, typewriting, plain needlework, all found their advocates in the discussion, a clear proof of the number of fields that even now are open for women who determine to excel in an occupation.

The question of home work aroused perhaps the keenest discussion and the greatest divergence of opinion. Miss .Irwin advocated the prohioition of taking home work from factories and the inspection of the premises of home workers. Mrs Hogg, whose articles in the 'Nineteenth Century' on 'fur-pulling' and 'wage-earning children' I daresay you have read, in a paper on 'Home Industry in its bearing on Child Life' pointed out the evils of parents and children working together and receiving a single wage. There was much said on sides without, however, any Very definite decision being arrived at. Mrs W. P. Reeves, of New Zealand, was able to describe the inspection in that colony of home workshops, and Lady Knightley to show the care that is required in fixing hours of work by legislation. The women in the nail and chain making trade, following the promptings of Nature, prefer in summer to work early and late and rest in the middle of the day. But the Factory Act prevents them from working before 6 a.m. or after 9 p.m., so that they are compelled to labour in the hottest part of the day. If I remember rightly the Chinese laundrymen in Melbourne were by the local Factories Act compelled to do their ironing during the heat of the day in exactly the same fashion.

Of course there were side shows of the conference. A young ladies (odious terms) meeting with papers on 'Happiness as a Duty for Workers,' 'The Place of Culture in a Girl's Life,' 'A Neighbour Guild and How to Work It,' and a Rescue Workers' Conference. Reports were read from all sorts of sub-committees, that looked forward to with most interest being that reporting ihe arrangements for THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN, which is to be held in June next in the Westminster Town Hall, Queen's Hall. The national council of every country has been invited to send in a list of its best men and women speakers. The discussions will be divided into various sectional meetings and International Arbitration and Woman's Suffrage will bulk largely amongst the leading topics. The Countess •of Aberdeen is the* appointed president, _:Mi.4Wright Sewell yice, and on-the^com-

mittee are Mrs Benson, wife of late Archbishop of Canterbury, Mrs Arthur Lyttelton, Mrs Creighton, Lady Laura Ridding, Lady Battersea and Mrs Alfred Booth. The programme is divided into five sections. Under the educational are technical training, the training of teachers, co-education of the sexes and modern educational experiments. The professional section embraces professions open to women, journalism, nursing and inspectorships.