ON SACRED GROUND

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 78, 27 December 1926, Page 10

ON SACRED GROUND

WOMEN AT OXFORD. Dominion Special. Auckland, December 24. one of the first women students to enter Oxford University was Miss Helen Simpson, a novelist, and author c-f several plays, who was a passenger by the Itotoi'ua from London to-day. Miss Simpson, who lias distinguished herself in the literary world, is on her way to visit her father in Australia, and left by the Maunganui this afternoon. Speaking of women at Oxford, Miss Simpson .said she thought a largo women’s college should be established in England. The men thought, and rightly (hat woman was poaching on ground that' had been sacred to students for hundreds of years. When Miss Simpson entered Oxford six years ago, the men did not know how to receive the feminine invaders. They thought the women were going to' invade all their institutions. Apart from sharing the same tutors and classrooms. however, the sexes kept apart. The women were not allowed to take part in ’’i»on debates or any gatherings of the kind. Miss Simpson stated that to-day there were some (XMI women students nt Oxford. and thev were housed in five colleges. They had their own rowing clubs and debating societies, etc.