DELEGATES ELECT NINE MEMBERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 191, 13 August 1940, Page 12

DELEGATES ELECT NINE MEMBERS.

District Council Of War Service Auxiliary. Nine women were elected to the Auckland district council of the recentlyformed Women's War Service Auxiliary at a meeting held in the City Council Chamber last night. The council is to comprise 12 members, three to be appointed and nine elected. There was a record attendance of dele gates from the majority of women's organisations in Auckland", each delegate being admitted by special ticket. Those elected were:—Miss Avenall (Shop Assistants' National Service Unit); Mrs. A. M. Hutchinson (Society for the Protection of Women and Children); Dr. Hilda Xorthcioft (Women's Medical Association and National party) ; Miss Ellen Melville (National Council of Women); Mrs. W. H. Cocker (Auckland Athletic Association) ; Miss A. L. Loudon (Food Value League); Miss D. M. Hawkins (Women's Service Corps); Mrs. R. S. Judson (Women's Division of the Farmers' Union); Mrs. 1". J. North (Returned Army Nursing Sisters). The Mayor, Sir Ernest Davis, presided at the meeting, and the speaker was Mis. H. Atmore, honorary organiser of the auxiliary. She was accompanied by Mr. H. H. Sterling, liaison officer for the Minister of National Service, the Hon. R. Semple. Mrs. Atmore stressed the point that the elected members would cease to represent the organisation which had sent them to the meeting, but would represent the women throughout the whole of New Zealand. She outlined a scheme of training centres she would like to see set up throughout the country, where young women could have an all-round training, and touched on the domestic side, general farm work, fruit picking and packing, and child welfare work. Mrs. Atmore stressed the point that women going into industry would not compete with those normally engaged in this work. Nothing would be done to upset constitutional methods. In a general discussion which followed, many women fluently expressed the opinion that New Zealand women were anxious to do their part in constructive war effort apart from the usual knitting and sewing. A resolution, proposed by Mrs. H. Dyson, and passed unanimously, requested the Government to take steps to' organise the woman-power of the Dominion on a practical baeis so as to enable them to make an effective contribution in the field of production, both industrial and primary, and to assist in the defence of the Dominion. Other 'speakers urged that not a moment must be lost. This was no time for lethargy, and the whole machinery must be speeded up. Women with particularly quick minds were required.