PROMINENT AUCKLAND WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 242, 12 October 1929, Page 14

PROMINENT AUCKLAND WOMEN.

;MRS. J, T. F. MITCHELL

"I think it is the word 'mother' that seems to strike the vibrant chord and attract women to our League," said Mrs. J. T. F. Mitchell, Auckland Provincial President for the League of Mothers. It will be remembered that the movement was started by Lady Alice Fergusson, who, on seeing what splendid work the Mothers' Union was doing for the Church of England, thought that its benefits might be extended among all denominations. Mrs. Mitchell has worked for it since that time, and acted as president for three years while Lady Gunson was in England. This year she was elected president. A South Australian by . birth, Mrs. Mitchell has lived the greater part of her life in New Zealand, in the South. She has always taken a keen interest in things pertaining to social welfare, and when at Invercargill was on the committees of various ■bodies. She was also on the executive of the Invercargill Women's Club and was one of _ the original committee. ' The Y.W.C.A. is an 1 organisation that Mrs. Mitchell has always worked for, and her name is also on the list Speaking of the League of Mothers, Mrs. Mitchell said that it was of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. certainly one of the most interesting movements she had ever been connected with, because it afforded so many opportunities of coming into contact with all women on the basis of motherhood. There was an. undeniable truth, she said, in the>. saying that "the hand that rocked the cradle ruled the world," and women must realise the power of home training in the building up of the nation. Its people made the character of a nation, and it all depended on the mother in the first place. . Mrs. Mitchell expressed a high opinion of modern youth. They were fine, capable and strong, she said. They had a. freedom of thought that the. previous generation never had, and parents must not be alarmed if at times it seemed as if that freedom had "gone to their heads.": If was only that they lacked balance and experience of life, which in itself signified youth, and parents must be tolerant and. understanding. Through all the ages, there had always been a "modern girl," and each generation thought her a deplorable departure from the existing standards. The League, Mrs. Mitchell concluded, was still another way by which mothers could get together and discuss the serious problem of child upbringing. . • . ,: