MAORI WELFARE LEAGUE

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26633, 19 January 1952, Page 2

MAORI WELFARE LEAGUE

WOMEN’S BRANCH FORMED IN CHRISTCHURCH

The first branch of the Maori Ladies’ Welfare League in the South Island was formed in Christchurch*on ; Thursday evening, at a meeting held i in the Ngati-Otautahi Association’s . rooms, Worcester street. The meeting ; was addressed by Mrs R. Wright, L senior Maori woman welfare officer in . New Zealand, who is Dominion s, secretary of the league and is attend- : mg the Pan-Pacific Women’s Conference as an observer on behalf of the Department of Maori Affairs. The officers elected were:—Patroness, . Mrs M. Tirikatene; president, Mrs T. Moss; vice-president, Miss K. Riwai; secretary, Mrs Kamo; treasurer, Mrs E. Pahi. The league was formed by the Department of Maori Affairs as a means of bringing Maori women together and has a membership of about 3000 in the North Island. CURRENT NOTES Miss' Iris Crooke (Wellington), who is attending the Pan-Pacific Women’s Conference in Christchurch, is the guest of Miss W. Gale, Winchester street. After the conference, she will visit Dunedin and Stewart Island before returning north. Mrs B. Collins (Woodham road) has returned to Christchurch after a visit to England. Miss Nancy Northcroft, Town Planning Officer for the Christchurch City Council, has returned from a holiday visit to her sister, Mrs W. H. Upton, Waimai. Waikato. Miss E. M. Trounce (Merivale), a member of the staff at the Shirley Intermediate School, will leave Christchurch in March for Sydney, where she will join the Oronsay on April 1 for a visit to Britain. Miss Margaret Magill (Wellington) arrived in Christchurch yesterday to attend the Pan-Pacific Women’s Conference, at which she is representing the Red Cross Society. Miss Magill has to her credit much pioneering work on behalf of women. Now a member of the Dominion executive of tbe Red Cross Society, she was for 19 years a member of the Eastbourne Borough Council and has the distinction of being the woman who has held the position of president of the New Zealand Educational Institute. Miss W. G. Priestley, a vegetable research officer at the Crop Research Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Lincoln, left Harewood by Skymaster yesterday on the first stage of a journey to England. In Melbourne she will join the Largs Bay. Miss Priestley, who , came to New Zealand from England four and a half years ago, will revisit her mother, who lives at Chorley Wood. Hertfordshire, and other relatives and friends. She aiso hopes to visit English research stations working m her field during nine months’ leave of absence from her New Zealand appointment. Speaking on education at the PanPacific women’s conference Miss M. V. Kennedy said that the word educate meant to train and training in one form or another should continue throughout life. To emphasise her point that it was never to late to learn, she said that a few years ago a group of former students of Canterbury University College, of which she is a graduate, gathered to honour a much loved Rector of the college. They presented him with a deep cushioned armchair. He looked at it a little nervously and said- “I 1 have always preferred a straightbacked chair—but one is never too ■ old to learn. I shall no doubt become : accustomed to sitting in this chair and like it.” ; Homesick Australian and New Zea- ' land “G.I. brides” in the United States ' have launched a campaign to secure Government-sponsored visits to their ’ homes. One section, calling itself “Operation Return,” has written to 1 President Truman and the Prime Min- .. isters of Australia and New Zealand. , Its plan includes the provision by the , Governments of Australia, New Zealand and America of aeroplanes to , convey the women to their parents’ or ! relatives’ homes, the qircraft to be ' manned by the armed forces, with the 1 return fare for each passenger at 3GO dollars—compared with 3000 dollars which it would cost them to travel by civil airlines. Officials in Wellington , yesterday said it was unlikely that the ' scheme would materialise or receive Government support.—(P.A.) Speaking at the Pan-Pacific 1 Womens’ Conference of the low ' dates of women in the islands of the 1 south-west Pacific, particularly in Melanesia, Mother Mary Peter, a teacher who has spent the last nine > years in Tonga, told a story of an : early missionary in Malaita. He needed to enlarge the hut that served as a church and he asked the men of the village to bring the wood, bamboo and leaves required. He was greatly surprised and distressed when the womenfolk arrived carrying heavy loads and on the following Sunday he "üblicly invited the men and boys to relieve the women of this heavy work in future. But when he came out of church he was surrounded by a shouting, gesticulating crowd of women who blamed him for publicly humiliating them. They wished to keep their reputation of being “strong women.” Specialisation in the welfare of children and the understanding of 1 children’s requirements has to-day ! reached a stage where it can un- 1 doubtedly be termed a science. As in < any other branch of child welfare, ’ a thorough understanding of school * necessities, correct clothing, etc. ! is the work of people who are 1 acknowledged expej-ts in this line. ' Parents in Canterbury are fortunate ‘ in knowing that their problems in ? the direction of school clothing are 1 well catered for, and are quickly ’ solved by the firm of Hay’s Limited. ! who have specialised for over 20 1 years in this line. Hay’s now have ( full stocks of all regulation school- 1 wear and mothers would be well adVls f d seriously consider their boys’ ' and girls’ school requirements at 1 once - —Advt. !

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