‘Rewarding' Conference

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31502, 17 October 1967, Page 2

‘Rewarding ' Conference

Hearing the experiences and opinions of delegates from Australia and the South Pacific was the most rewarding part of the conference of the Associated Country Women of the World in Adelaide for Mrs A. Harper, the representative of the South Island of the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers. “It is certainly an education to hear women from underdeveloped countries speak with such confidence and in such excellent English.” Mrs

Harper said in Christchurch yesterday. The problems of women in the Pacific islands was discussed at a seminar in Sydney before the opening of the conference in Adelaide. After the opening address by Justice Mitchell, the first woman judge in South Australia, there was a welcome party and buffet, at which Mrs Harper renewed acquaintences made at previous conferences.

The opening paper set the theme of the conference—aid for island members. Miss Ruth Robinson, who has worked in Fiji for 10 years, said it was important to gain the women’s confidence. One basic difference in their attitude was expressed during a discussion on holiday camps and homes for the elderly. “One of the delegates from the islands said they had no such problems as the aged people were taken into their homes and they felt it was a

privilege to have them,” she said.

The record of affiliated societies in the islands was impressive. In the last 16 years members had raised $ll,OOO and built 11 hostels in Papua-New Guinea. In Niue the building of a clubhouse, a project in which the Country Girls’ Clubs of New Zealand had participated, was in progress. The women of the Solomon Islands clubs took a further step toward emancipation by organising a concert, the first time women had undertaken such a task there.

Australian clubs were also active. The Northern Territories representative spoke of the outback woman's isolation and the resolution of clubs

to raise finance for their own maternity hospital. They raised $lO,OOO, and with a Government subsidy of $4OOO the hospital, which now had 100 beds, was built.

The W.D.F.F. housekeeper scheme in New Zealand was another subject of discussion. Mrs Harper was interested to learn of similar schemes in Queensland and Western Australia, and a home aid project in southern New South Wales.