WOMEN'S INSTITUTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 81, 7 April 1931, Page 11

WOMEN'S INSTITUTES.

POWER FOR GOOD

What the Women's Institutes are accomplishing in the English-speaking world is commented upon by "Kapiti" in a recent issue of the "Dominion." The writer'says:—"The surest sign of the awakening of- the mentality of the country women is the fact that drama is everywhere being welcomed. In the Old Country we hear of drama festivals, run by the Women's Rural Institutes, lasting a week and more, where plays, original and otherwise, are enacted by the women themselves. A Drama League is penetrating the glens and valleys of Scotland so that those who dwell away from cities may" still share their cultural diet. In New Zealand every wave is carrying drama farther into the backblocks and the day is not far distant when we, too, shall have our drama festivals.

"The response the women have made to the introduction of plays and playreading is whole-hearted and spontanecms. The reason is not- far. to seek. In spite of modern improvements on the farm, the work is still of an implacably monotonous character, monopolising the physical being and allowing no scope for the mental. The result is that, the intelligence and the interest, become painfully limited to the petty news of the district and their world is bounded by their own fences. Were this to continue for another generation the fear arises that we should have a peasant population in the rural areas. , History proves how important is the part played by the of the mother in >,he family. She has .them , close to her in the early impressionable years and she it is that guides their .outlook and inspires t.ieir ambitions. How important, therefore, it is that she should'not be monopolised by purely household labour, but that she should have that precious little >time 'to stand and stare.' ~ .

"This the Women's Institutes are going a long way to provide. They stimulate social - intercourse and love of handcrafts. The variety of handcraft demonstrations'is so. great that it is told of an old Scottish member of an institute that she said, commenting on this variety: "They'll not be satisfied till they get the blacksmith there with a horse to shoe.' Medical, literary, travel lectures are given in addition to subjects of unlimited choice and supplying a wide and generous field for thought. More especially is a breadth of education going to be achieved through drama. One half-hour in an institute hall in the backblocks will, do more to heal a sick mind, to stimulate and educate, than years of teaching—or preaching.

"A new and wonderful world has been opened to the women in the country and Only lack of funds to supply an abundance of plays all over the rural areas prevents this world being opened to all."