HOLIDAYS NEEDED BY MOTHERS

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23496, 26 November 1941, Page 3

HOLIDAYS NEEDED BY MOTHERS

—• MINISTER’S STATEMENT The need was emphasised by the Minister for Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) yesterday for mothers who were rearing families being granted better facilities than were enjoyed by mothers of the past, to enable them to have an annual vacation at one of the many popular resorts of the Dominion. Replying to a deputation of women, Mr Parry said that the drudgeries, and often anxieties, of the household, were borne by the mother, and the women’s institutions who had largely helped to provide relief were deserving of community praise. New Zealand had prided itself on having the lowest infant mortality in the world and that pride was justified because of the excellent systems operating in the country for assisting mothers to rear their babies. But did the country look after the mothers as well as it did the babies? He considered no finer extension of the activities of the women’s institutions could be devised than that which promoted a system for the care of the children while the mother was given the opportunity and facilities to enjoy the kind of holiday the Tourist Department and the Group TraVel Association provided at cheap rates. Under the group travel system in the South Island, large parties of women from farms, offices, and business concerns had enjoyed a rejuvenating holiday at picturesque places which they had in the past looked at enviously in pictures in the. illustrated papers.