WELLINGTON WOMEN AND THEIR WORK

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 139, 8 March 1930, Page 20

WELLINGTON WOMEN AND THEIR WORK

MISS J. HETHERINGTON, M.A.

When the higher education of women and all the long struggle which went to gain it is the subject of any discussion, there are some names which at once occur Io one’s mind among the many fine women of England who struggled against the old, worn idea that women did not need to learn anything, but how Io do nothing gracefully. Even in New Zealand there has been an uphill fight, all hough it has been neither so long nor so difficult as in the older countries. The New Zealand University granted women degrees before those of the Old Land, and some of the first women graduates in the Empire were New Zealanders.

When counting our gains in this field and alotting them Io those to whom they are due. one of the names which must, stand high on the list is that of Miss J. Hetherington, at present Inspector of Secondary Schools iu the Dominion. Miss Hetherington was educated in New Zealand, taking her B.A. degree at Auckland University College. Then she went to England and Girton, where she took honours in history aud law, afterwards being attached to the Blackburn Training College, Lancashire. On her return to the Antipodes she was teaching for a time at the Burwood Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne, one of the best, known Secondary Schools for girls in Australia. In a few years, however, she returned to England where she took her Diploma of Education at London, aud then she was again at Cambridge, but this time as Lecturer Io the Secondary Teachers’ Training College, where she, - no doubt, gained much experience which was placed at the disposal of her own country later, for iu 1015 she was appointed Lecturer at the Wellington Training College, and in this she was a pioneer worker, being the first woman lecturer iu cultural subjects at the college, the kindergarten department hav-

ing been the only one With a woman lecturer. Miss Hetherington inaugurated much of the History leaching aud Dramatic work which has become such a feature of the college since under Miss Irvine-Smith. She was senior lecturer at the college, but New Zealand educational authorities were not prepared to see women in administrative positions even of mixed colleges, although K’.e women students far outnumber the men, so when the vice-priucipal-ship fell vacant Aliss Hetherington resigned on a question of principle. It was a cotvageous act, as it drew attention to the disabilities under which women teachers work. Miss Hetherington was for a short time president of the Wellington Women Teachers’ Association, which owed much to her careful guidance, and she was also on the committee of the W.E.A.. After leaving the Training College, Miss Hetherington was able, to give her time to research in her favourite subject, history, and the result of her work on the constitutional relations between Great Britain and the Colonies has been a book published under the tile of "New Zealand’s Political Relations with Great Britain.” During part of the time when engaged in that work, Miss Hetherington was in Australia, but she returned to New Zealand to finish the task. In 11)20 Miss Hetherington was appointed to the position of an Inspector of Secondary Schools in New Zealand, and here again she is breaking new ground for she is the'first woman inspector to be appointed for all scholastic subjects, the only subjects hitherto under a woman inspector being those grouped.under domestic science. If, as the Minister of Educatin has said, more women inspectors are to be appointed, it mav bo that soon Miss Hetherington will be able to welcome another woman into her work, although women inspectors, perhaps, will first be appointed for that essentially women’s branch of teaching, the infant classes.- In any' case, they will be warmly welcomed by Miss Hetherington, who has striven throughout her career to open a path where her fellow women may follow on to even greater achievements in the scholastic world; -

In the article on Mrs. Janies Findlay’s work in Wellington last week, an error occurred, it being said she was treasurer of the Citizens’ Day Nursery. Mrs. Fiuflay has been a very able treasurer of the Residential Nursery under the W.N.R. The treasurer of the Citizens’ Day Nursery is Mrs. J. P. Firth, who has ably carried but that work ever since the Day Nursery was inaugurated, aud who still holds that office.