ADVICE TO PARENTS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 147, 23 June 1928, Page 6

ADVICE TO PARENTS

CENTRE OP CITIZENSHIP Apart from curiosity, the' chief factor in bringing husbands and wives in such, large numbers to the first provincial combined meeting of the League of Mothers held at the Hutt on Thursday was the speaker, Mr. Havelock ■ Cornish, M.A., LL.M. and his subject, "The Home, the Centre of True Citizenship." The elements could scarcely have been more unkindly, but a spirit of warm friendliness pervaded the meeting, while the speaker dealt in his own characteristic style with this vital and searching subject. - Mr. Cornish touched on the characteristics of true citizenship—courage, independence of character, justice, etc., and showed how these may be fostered in' the • homes, to be revealed later in public life. This, he said, might be done by precept, but better still by the example of parents, and he maintained that while not an infallible will, >it'very'often followed that children brought up by home-makers striving "to play their 'game fairly," sought to emulate the spirit of their parents and thus made good citizens and successes of their lives. Mr. Cornish avoided platitudes and generalities, but gave several very obvious reasons why fathers left the training of the family to a large extent to the mothers, and suggested that the time had come when the "head of the house" should realise that fame and money do not mean satisfactory ultimate success to parents,, but that a family of well-trained to be citizens . "from Nature's large mould" was' the greatest legacy parents could leave a nation, and the greatest source of .satisfaction to themselves. These children would not be prototypes of their parents, but the product of their parents' added experience. To gain*this-ideal he suggested that conferences of home-makers would help to shed much ■ light on subjects that every parent finds- difficult, for. he threw the onus of training, not on the Church and school, though they assist materially, but on the hotne-makers, and he challenged the fathers as well as the mothers to take a share in this nation-building task—namely, the training of future citizens. A .happy note was struck in her introductory remarks by Mrs. Kersley, the president of the league,: who, after welcoming the fathers, read the .objects' of the league, bo that they might undersand the "depth" of the meetings. •. Mr. Strand, Mayor, supplemented these remarks by a very gracious reference to the founder, Lady Alice Fergus'son, and eulogised the effect of the working id the league on the homes of the district. During the, evening . musical items were, given by Mrs. Downer and Mrs. Phillipp's glee party. Mrs. Chisholm recited some very appropriately-selected poems. Supper, arranged by Mrs.-M'Caw and Mrs. Strand, gave an opportunity for, social intercourse, after which the National Anthem closed a most instructive and happy evening. It was announced that the'members are arranging for a small flower and cake stall at the Borstal "at home" next week. The speaker for the July meeting woud be Mr. Charles Wilson, ex-Parliamentary Librarian, who will deal with the subject of "Children's. Reading."