PROMINENT AUCKLAND WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 33, 8 February 1930, Page 14

PROMINENT AUCKLAND WOMEN.

MISS ALICE H. G. BASTEN, A.P.A

The Civic League was the training ground of Miss Basten for her entry into public life, as it has been of so many of the women whose work for Auckland is outstanding. From a seat on the executive she rose to the position of president. In connection with this work Miss Basten put up a long and sustained fight to obtain a rest room for women in Auckland and to enable mothers to take their collapsible prams on the trams.

The election to a position as a City Councillor followed naturally, and Miss Basten is now in her second term as a representative of the city. She serves her town on the Parks and Re- ' serves Committee, on the Library Committee, and by virtue of her position is

also a member of the Auckland Drainage Board. Miss Basten has had a thorough training in business and with her sister is one of the only two women who are actively practising in Now Zealand as public accountants and auditors. This training in business methods stood Miss Basten in good stead when, during the war, sha was convener of the literature of the Auckland Women's Patriotic League. This League kept the hospital ships, the training camps, and the troops in Samoa supplied with reading matter. On the coming of peace this work merged into the Mayoress' \yar Memorial Library League, which still does good work for those isolated people who live in the lighthouses, in the backblocks, and in the orphanages and country hospitals. It also sends interesting literature to the residents on Niue Island.

Miss Basten was one of the group of long-sighted women who founded tlie Lyceum Club, which has grown into such a fine and representative body, with splendid club premises of which any city could be proud. She is also on the executives of the Navy League and the Auckland Hospital Auxiliary, of which she is the honorary auditor, as well as chairman of the Housing Committee of. the Auckland Town Planning Association.

Work for the National \ Council of Women has also engrossed Miss Basten's time. In this connection she has acted as Dominion secretary, has attended a number of the Dominion conferences, and 1 -is the Press secretary. At present she is energetic interest in the work of the Tamaki Progressive League, which Las a branch both at St. Helier's Bay, and at Kohimarama. She ha 3 been elected president of the combined body. Practically unknown as a public speaker, she is nevertheless in constant demand bv small sectional groups, who are forming themselves into some form of social service for the benefit of the city and suburbs, and also with young people, to whom she gives homely chats ou everyday topics.