AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 305, 26 December 1928, Page 9

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WEEKLY BUDGET.

(By CONSTANCE CLYDE.)

BRITISH WOMEN HELPED,

That the British Government should finance women simply to meet their neighbours and talk sounds Gilbertian, yet this is really one truth of the women's institutes, of which there are now 4000 in England and Wales, grown up during the last thirteen years. One can scarcely imagine this happening in New Zeala'nd. though we with our Plunkct system and our widows' pensions, small as they are. cannot say that we are unhelped. Needless*to say even in England such assistance was not given at the beginning, nor is it being given now. These institutes were begun by the women's organisations, and assisted by grants in 1917, these grants being discontinued when it was found that the organisations were self-support-ing. Such a simple thing, a village institute! Women merely come to meet their neighbours, and exchange idea:- on domestic matters and on politics! Each pays a small sum, while a hostess provides that much satirised feminine meal, tea and buns. For the first few years the women, simple and lonely village women iffostly, were reluctant to address the assembly, and it was noticed that they hated voting on any proposal, unless sure the vote would be unanimous. Later, however, they became educated to the mild publicity of the institute, and we know now that interest in arts and handicrafts was promoted with practical results.

"RADIO AS FEMINIST." The problem of the lonely woman was also a serious one in America. This was not to be solved by village institutes, the distances being too great. To many a settler's wife on the vast plains elections were as incidents on another planet, and no pamphlets or reported city lectures could nVuch alter this impression. It was radio (according to one critic) that began, quite lately, to rouse her interest. When the wireless gave actual words spoken and election sounds, she grasped reality, and from this came at last a genuine desire to take her small part in those big affairs. As a result, there is at least one state in which more women have enrolled than "men, while in the recent election they took a considerable part. Incidentally the writer dwells upon the fact that as regards two-thirds of the great political position women have held in America, the mantle has descended to them from a husband. This was so with the two Governorships, held by Mrs. Ferguson and Mrs. Nell Ross respectively. Five out of the seven representatives in Con- , gress, again, really represented their I husbands' policies, having taken their husbands' policies. It is not perhaps, in the opinion of many, the ideal way of inaugurating feminine equaliyt, but then reform seldom beg' 1 ?, in an ideal 91 is sr?y expected,

THE SPINSTER'S MITE. "When 800 men and girl strikers from a firm in Edmonton received strike pay recently at the rate of one pound for the men and ten shillings for each girl. some of the unmarried girls relinquished part of their pay for the benefit of the men. A feminist paper commends this action, as sensible as well as kindly, the men being married with fairly large families. The same paper notes, however, that the unmarried men did not consider also doing something in this line. "Doubtless," says the paper, "they were inspired with tender solicitude for the mythical family of two or three with which they are credited, according to the standard family ideal. And who shall blame them? The power of continuous mass suggestion is of great potency, as women know to their cost." A SPORTS QUEEN. About £10 an hour is earned by Miss Aileen Riggin, of New York. She is 21 years of age, an exhibition diver, and also the highest paid sportswoman in the /world. She works also only a few hours per week. Australia is to be visited by her very shortly, so that her "twists" and "jack knives" may enliven the Sydney waterfront.