AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 210, 5 September 1930, Page 10

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WEEKLY BUDGET,

(By CONSTANCE CLYDE.)

MRS. PANKHURST'S MEMORY.

In an Auckland cinema house the other day, we saw the presentment of' the unveiling of a statue to Mrs. Pankhurst, the suffragist leader, and heard the words of the dignitary who disclosed the memorial. It is well at this time to remember that she did many years of excellent civic work before circumstances forced her to a somewhat spectacular role. Says one writer: "As a poor law guardian,. she was resourceful in securing alleviation of their drab lot for the victims of poverty and the Poor Law.

A touch of home, a glint of motherly housewife's common sense, she imported into the workhouse. She- fought against the upholders of tradition to secure backs for the old people's seats, and that the bread, hitherto dealt in. chunks of given weight, should be cut up and buttered, (or alas, to be accurate, margarined) and sejfc out on plates for all to take as they chose; little things, but received with great gratitude in those days." Difficult is it for us to realise that there had to be need for backs to those old women's seats. But perhaps even our own times-may show equal minor cruelties. Said Mr. Pethick Lawrence when unveiling the statue: "A quarter of a century ago women were regarded as outside the main stream of life, and only as ministers to the comfort, the happiness, or the vices of men. To-day they have taken their right places as co-equal participators in human destiny."

THREE IMPORTANT WOMEN. The woman master plumber is still rare, but there is at least one in Germany, Frau Johanna Wagner, of Berlin, who received her certificate after four days' stiff examination. She had to prove her ability in every kind of practical test, dealing with most complicated matters. She was trained by her husband, who is also a master plumber. Perhaps the youngest woman auctioneer in the world is Miss Muriel F. Davies ( of Sydney, who has just gained her license at the early age of .19. . Mrs. Catherine Nelson may be mentioned as the'; only woman steel welder; in the world.. She. was a Dane.by birth, but her work is done in New Jersey, U.S.A., where, she climbs steel bridges, and uses an electric welder. Her highest job was on a 250 ft water tower, where she riveted a' plate. Formerly she was a dressmaker,, and .she stillbusies herself with fine embroidery as a hobby. A woman much discussed at the moment is Lady Noel, Buxton, Labour member, who now brings the number of women in the British Parliament to 15. She was formerly a Lady Edith Pelham Burn, accustomed to Conservative circles. ' She is a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society, and likewise interested in the vexed question of child welfare , .

THE MIGRANT DOMESTIC. "I wrote to an Anglican cleric about it," wrote naively an English migrant to Australia the other day. was giving her account of hard experiences as domestic worker in colonial homes, and in her account to a British feminist magazine, unconsciously showed how very unsuitable she was for the position. That she should have to get up at seven every morning, even Sunday, "seems a strange grievance in this busy colonial world, while her feeling that,she should lie down between two and four, though ironing; was to be done, also proved her incapacity fpr the new lands. It is certainly a grievance, and not an uncommon one, that she was deceived as to the 'number of the family and the extent of the work. But how cockney is her pathetic, "My window looked on no view, nothing but a mountain," even the Blue Mountains-evidently would have been anathema to'her. That she has some humour, however, was proved by her report o£ a chat witli her mistress, a wool squatter's wife. "If people aren't public spirited and wear more wool, it will be hard on girls like'you. We shall not be able to pay you so much." "She was wearing a silken confection from Paris," said the migrant, "and sheer silk stockings. I was wearing a wool dress, and stockings of the same." It is a pity that migrant girls are not warned that soft jobs in domestic life Down Under can be obtained only if they will accept the small wages which, most leave England to avoid.