Lady Fergusson Makes Plea For Good Neighbourliness

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30445, 20 May 1964, Page 2

Lady Fergusson Makes Plea For Good Neighbourliness

An ideal world, where every so many houses in every street would be a small community of people prepared to help each other “without taint of patronising concern or nosey parker interference,” was envisaged by Lady Fergusson in Christchurch last evening.

Referring to her recent visit to the Pacific Islands, Lady Fergusson said: “Often I felt we had walked into another time altogether, and often I felt worried and puzzled at the course our lives have taken and the things of which we have lost sight.”

“I was taught a sharp lesson in seeing ourselves as others see us, when I was asked by an excellent woman on one island ‘What is this proble mof old people in New Zealand? Is it true the young people throw them out’?”, she said.

The woman had been reading about the closing of the old Selwyn Home in Auckland, her Excellency explained.

Lady Fergusson, who is patron of the National Council of Women of New Zealand, was speaking at a reception held in her honour by the Christchurch branch of the council.

It was easy to oversimplify and to over-idealise, she said.

“But I can’t get one thing out of my head. No matter how simple, or how complex the life of a community, the most elementary expression of kindness to someone in trouble can be a solution to

- that trouble. , “We have developed, or are on the way to developing,

: wonderful institutions, cures and treatments for every kind of physical and social complaint. “After seeing the simple community care given so un-self-consciously among the

islanders, I wonder whether i we couldn’t prevent a lot of 1 these complaints in our midst, i by the simple practice of i good neighbourliness. i Loneliness in towns and ■ cities, whether suffered by i students, overseas visitors or

old people: over-tiredness by harrassed young mothers, parents of handicapped children, were sources of breakdowns she mentioned. Ideal Neighbourhood

In an ideal world every so many houses in every street in cities and towns would be a little community of people prepared to help each other without taint of patronising concern or nosey-parker interference—just because the residents were each other’s neighbours.

“It happens quite simply w’heh your house has no walls and the coconut trees from which you all depend for food and drink and clothing are communally owned,” she said. It was a sad reflection that the building of walls and the acquisition of learning should create barriers,- create unhappiness, and create problems for which committees, families and research institutions then needed to be brought into being. Pacific Pattern There was a surge of interest in education and social development throughout the islands of the South Pacific, she said.

“You will be sending delegates to the Pan-Pacific conference meeting in Tonga in August. They are terribly thrilled about this, and started planting extra food a year ago. Everyone's heart will be opened to you. I hope you will absorb what they can offer us,” she added. It would be an exciting meeting of different worlds. Lady Fergusson said she was more than ever sure of one thing: that the educational opportunities being offered to young people from the islands—and to the people of the newly-develop-ing countries of South-east Asia and Africa, must be matched by training for girls and women who will be running the homes and raising the families of the future. Responsibility

“That is where our good neighbourliness is being called on, and we have a chance we must not miss. It- is not a matter of sending gifts and clothes but of understanding and sympathy. We have a responsibility to these countries. It’s a big responsibility—but not- bigger than that shouldered by our forefathers here in this very city,” she said. Expressing her pleasure that her first solo public en-

gagement in Christchurch would give her the opportunity to meet representatives of so many organisations in the city, Lady Fergusson said she was no stranger to meetings of the National Council of Women in New Zealand.

“I follow your activities and views closely in your firstclass publication, ‘Woman’s Viewpoint’,” said Her Excellency. Welcoming Lady Fergusson, the president (Miss M, E. Saunders) said council delegates deeply appreciated Her Excellency’s gracious action in giving her. time and energy to attend the reception. They had been following with interest the vice-regal family’s journeys and adventures in the Pacific Islands

and hoped, after that, they would not find the weather too cold in Christchurch. Though the winter was not the most attractive season for visiting Christchurch, Miss Saunders said she hoped Lady Fergusson would have time to drive round the Summit road to see the backdrop of snowy mountains, the fertile Canterbury’ plains and the sweep of Pegasus Bay. During the evening Miss Saunders presented the Mayoress (Mrs G. Manning), Christchurch branch executive members. Dominion officers, Dominion life members and presidents of organisations affiliated to the council, to Lady Fergusson. Items were given by Edna Boyd-Wilson, who sang a bracket of Celtic folk songs to her own harp accompaniment, and by Lois Macdonald, who played violin solos' accompanied by Helga Newson.