A BUSY WOMAN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 284, 25 August 1908, Page 3

A BUSY WOMAN.

/HUGHES, TEMPERv ANCE REFORMER. ... : l The', Australia' that. *p„' know -through - Australian- stories and verso; is'gbnorally speaking.'a,X land" of dull. unhappiness : and sordid the sun: blazes maliciously over ineart'i..city-. streets aocl.'J hopeless desolate wastes^' in ''it's .'glare' the little livos of men "work-out to nniaiipy'ends.' It is of a very different Australia that ' Miss Anderson Hiighes has to tell, after her two and a half years of'journeying, through" the States, ; and ' this .not because she has only seen part of the country; jbut because•: she travelled everywhere on'a mission; of reform" instinct with hopo for'ths!'bettering of the conditions of the peoples;-A reformer working out her dreams is proof-against pessimism. ; ' Since: the" day two and'a half years ago , • when.'Miss Hughes; who':by the way is quite, a yoking woman, went over from her Auckland home' to' help -the Victorian Alliance, 'she has travelled between nino and ten thousand miles', 'holding missions from the south of South Australia to the north of Queensland, visiting goldfields (she waß on tho Poseidon goldfield during-the beginning of the rush, when out of tho 2000 men on the fields about SO were makingjnoney and tho rest losing it), shel. has been to the cotton and the , #:igar-plantations, through the banana and pine apple growing districts; coaching or driving across .rough country in a buggy for hours to .hold- meetings .■ away in. the back blocks, 'and on ono .occasion during the local option campaign; in New South AVales last year,'travelling fourhundred miles and holding 32 meetings in 12' days! ;■ This was in theGloucester electorate, which came very near to .getting--No-License .' at the- local option' poll -last year, arid; which was' at first reported to havo actually done so. Miss Anderson Hughes's : record has been one of boundless , enthusiasm and earnest unflagging work. Probably' no other New Zealand woman has gone from here to carry on a .vigorous propaganda in another country/;'.-Miss Hughes is to go on to West A.ustraliay : and • it is ' understood that this visit ''tb' New''Zealand 'is' on- J her way to the West. She'has been engaged in campaign work nearly all the time'.- Her twelve' , months in Melbourne wore connected with tho" agitation, for. thq. new • liquor - legislation; her 'mission: to New .South Wales was to . hold' meetings', in..,connection .with the local option''poll;" and- when she was'in South Australia ; she : ; was in the contest i oft Wo separate local option polls. In ad- '•, dition to this. she' has on. occasion 'given i hor/ help when' it lias been asked for' by I the suffragists in Victoria, where alone in . Au'stiralia the women hav'o as yet no vote ' ■ fop :State Parliamentary candidates.'' ' T Tliefe is no lack of colour in -her des--criptions, and listening to hor ono gets a vivid' impression of the variety of -life in tlis! States, and the groat resources of the ••-island continent. . Miss Hughes has been especially • interested 'in what she has seen •of the ■ Aitstralian natives, in South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland. •She tells- of the; natives...sho met in ,New South Wales,'who were skilful leaf players. This is an accomplishment unknown f-n the Northern blacks," but Miss'Hughes tolls how, listening, from outside a room where a quartet ;of natives were playing on folded, lemon' leaves, it was almost impossible to' believe that they were not playing on violins, with: ono E" Flat clarionet. These performers are,very popular,-'and their names appear on every concort programme in the . district.' ... ' . A In itho North of Queensland sho. visited the'.Yarrabah mission settlement, which is conducted on communistic lines, save that it is .ruled over by a clergyman, who, living as simply as ,the natives themselves, 1 directs their, work and. makes full provision for their, comfort. 'Thota are several hundred natives' in tho settlement, which is connected with small outlying native villages. Tho'girls are"; trained to all sorts of do-' mestic; work, and when they marry, a comfortable and furnished homo is provided from the funds of the community. Their children are-left with them jtill; they'aro six or eight years 'of. ago, when they are drafted into what are called dormitories, and there they remainiuntil 'they,' fjoo', marry. This 'is 1 a neccssary precaution, because the natives as ' parents are easy-goijig, and absolutely at the mercy-of i their imuily ofFspring.' The same tliing is-- quita many a European parent,. but?.what a disturbance-there l would be if. any such remedy wore enforced. The men of the settlement.- are employed in various ways, growing cotton, cocpanuts,' or sugarcane, and. they do a good trade in turtles and beche-de-mer. They havo their' own printing .presses, publish a weekly newspaper, liavo a vblunteer corps and band, and some of them aro lay preachers, two or three of them having at different times preached in tho Brisbane Anglican churches. Altogether, .as an'object-lesson of what can bo dqno'with'; the' Australian natives, the Yarrabah< settlement is a great success.

An interring story of an elopement is handed'down in the family of Lord Northampton (says "M.A.P."). A former holder .of'the title fell in love with the pretty daughter of Sir John Spencer, Lord Mayor'' of London, but Sir John was a real father.of the old school, and would not countenance his daughter's suitor. So tho latter determined. to take matters into his own hands. Ho disguised himself as a baker's . apprentice, and, going boldly to tho . homp! of his lady-love, he bore her off in triumph in a hugh baker's.basket. Sir John ' m6t him on the stairs, and failing to rcco£- " nisri him tipped him sixpence for his punct- ' uafity in bringing round the bread. Later on; when he discovered tho truth, he vowed that that sixpence should be the last coin of his that Lord Northampton or his ' daughter should ever see. Time went on, and one day Sir John Spencer received a message from _ Queen Elizaberth.' to attend tho christening of a ne\\;-born babe, whom she hoped he would adopt in place of his disinherited daughter. The. old man went, and discovered that tho little one was his own grandchild—the daughter of Lord and Lady Northampton. Sir John was so pleased that he became reconciled to the parents, and all ended happily- '