APATHETIC WOMEN

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 90, 10 January 1919, Page 2

APATHETIC WOMEN

A CALL ,TO THE INDIFFERENT. (By "Vox.") Can anyone suggest a means of galvanising into activity the apathetic women of No»- Zealand? Those -women who take an active interest in matters of publie welfare, such as sanitation, education, and the health of the community generally, and of children particularly, are ;all. the while, finding themselves brought up short by a cold wall of indifference. Opposition is-;go6d. It really requires a little healthy and intelligent opposition jto crystallise one's own opinions. Agreement is stimulating. It gives that sort I of • "grcat-niintls-that-think-alike" feeling that is so food. "But indifference long ' enough persisted in, has the effect at last of spreading to tho energetic, or else berating their hearts.; Of course, the reason is that the majority of people here are very comfortable, and do not want to be bothered about anything outside their own immediate interests, not realising that in tho last resort everything tliat affects tho community, or indeed any soction of it, comes home to the individual. An epidemic, for instance, is not born a monster; it is much more likely a thing of small beginnings, and its sponsors are neglect and indifference. The fact that something like seventy per cent, of. our young men proved unfit for military-service is the outcome entirely of this some .condition of mind— nln-nvs Sndifferoncs.- There can be no doiibt that women in New Zealand have the power and-the ability to do a great deal towards bettering existing conditions of sanitation, education, and general efficiency if they will only recognise their responsibility in such matters, and either find some means of. union or else strengthen <;he hands of those societies which are already at work.