WOMEN'S INSTITUTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 196, 19 August 1936, Page 14

WOMEN'S INSTITUTES.

PROGRESS IN N.Z. i SIGNIFICANCE OF CONVENTION. ■ : • (By. FEMINA.) / , ■ That the recent Dominion conference of the Federated Women's, Institutes of New Zealand, held this year in Dunedin, has been one of great significance to the movement, few who attended it would be likely to deny. The "growing up" tendency which has been increasingly evident with each successive convention certainly took a bold leap forward with this last meeting. The whole convention was a demonstration of efficient planning, good-humoured team work and a seriousness of purpose which places the movement among the really significant Dominion organisations —significant as to size, for the Federated Institutes now number 890, an increase of 66 during the year, and significant as to spirit, in the broad outlook exemplified by the remits and excellence of the speaking during the discussions. The Women's Institute movement, which originated in Canada, came to us via England, and its early activities were inevitably coloured by the outlook of the English rural community workers in post-war Britain. For several years the movement suffered from a dearth of rural women here who were experienced in speaking, organising and working in a women's movement. But unsuspected talent was evoked by the needs of the institute's meetings. That the movement is predominantly a rural women's movement ' still was evinced by the recent convention, when a country woman, Mrs. Deans, was elected as president. Young—she is still in her thirties—highly educated and efficient, courageous and independent, Mrs. Deans typifies the new rural woman, and during her presidency will doubtless do much to enhance the status of the landswoman. Mrs. Deans' mother is a member of the well-known Williams family of the East Coast, and her father is General Sir Andrew Russell, who recently retired from the Dominion presidency of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, and who is now taking an active part in the Social Credit movement and the League for the Abolition of'Poveriy. Mrs. Deans and her husband are farming—sheep and wheat —at "Sandown," Darfield, and she is president of the North Canterbury Federation of Women's Institutes. She was educated at Woodford House, at which school her daughter now is, and she has a son in the boys' college near. After leaving school, she did war work in England, and also acted as her father's secretary for some time. Experienced Vice-President. The joint chairman of the conference, Miss Amy Kane, J.P., was elected vicepresident of the institutes, polling very high in the presidential election. One of the best-known 1 public women in New Zealand, Miss Kane recently represented the Dominion at the World Conference of the League for Equal Citizenship in Europe. She is president of the Pioneer Club in Wellington, chairman of the National Executive of the British Drama League, is , a member of the Wellington Hospital Board, supports the Red Cross, the League of Nations Union and many other community movements. She has long been an active worker for the unemployed women, and for the Wellington Returned Soldiers' Hostel. Miss K'ane is well known and popular in Auckland Institute circles, and is a balanced, experienced and sympathetic chairman and spokeswoman. Her residence in Wellington will make her a force in the movement in all aspects, where representative action is required in the capital. Described by many delegates as "the soul of the conference," the greatest single motive power in the Women's Institute movement is Mrs. Elizabeth Kelso, Dominion organiser. Mrs. Kelso is a lady of bewildering versatility and of a broad and sane outlook. When you meet her, do not let her calm efficiency, her sympathetic good humour and her brilliant wit blind you to the fact that she works a 10-hour day, travels all over the Dominion, knows the personnel and problems of each individual institute and throws all the force of a very powerful character into the lifting of the status of the movement and of its members. Mrs. Kelso is a Celt —born in the Highlands and educated in the Lowlands, at Glasgow College and University, where she was considered the best woman speaker, of her time._ She has studied teaching in English and Scottish j schools and in New Zealand works much I for education reform and adult educa- ! tion —especially rural. She writes, lectures, debates, encourages, deters, demonstrates. For some time she edited "Home a:nd Country," the journal of the institutes in* New Zealand. Mrs. Kelso takes a very strong interest in the Maori side of institute development and devotes every • moment she 1 can to the helping of the Maori women to develop as citizens axid to adjust themselves to the increasing complexity of modern life. Mrs.. Kelso is also a craftswoman, which etiables her to understand that side of the Maori nature; as a wife and mother she has an insight into family problems and practical homecraft. Unaffected by tribal rivalries, endowed by birth with mana and by experience with the high judgment of the ariki, she is looked to as a natural and most widely acceptable leader in the Maori women's movement towards "Kotaliitanga," or the unifying of Maori ideals. A Strong Executive. The newly-elected Dominion executive is a strong one. There have been changes; Miss Spen?er retires from officeI—she1—she was founder of the W.I. movement in New Zealand; so 1 has Mrs. Bibby, of Waipawa, well known as composer, of the "Ode to Friendship" sung at institute meetings. Miss Maddever remains; "also Mrs. Chisnall, the capable Dominion' treasurer; Mrs. Margaret McCorkindale, the well-known- crafts, woman and organiser for arts and crafts of the Dominion; Mrs. J. Ayson, Mrs. L. Hbrn, Mrs. G. A. M. Macdonald, Mrs. C. Williams', Mrs. H. Paterson are members (the last-named being, of course, the 1 retiring president); Miss M. Grant, of Palmerston North, who with Mrs. Paterson represented New "Zealand at the recent world 'conference of the Associated Countrywomen of the World; while two new members who bring much strength to the executive are Sister May Gardiner, of Poverty Bay, well-known missioner and social worker among Europeans an£ the Maori community, and Mrs. F. M. Revell, the very popular secretary of the Auckland District Federation. Auckland Is now directly represented on the Dominion executive, and much is expected from Mrs Revell's election, supported as she is with affecI tion and confidence throughout the ' northern federations.