HUTT VALLEY NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1938, Page 18

HUTT VALLEY NEWS

W.D.F.U. AIMS EXPLAINED

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

In response to numerous requests for information on the aims and objects of the Women's Division of the Farmers' Union, from many newmembers who recently Joined the Lower Hutt, branch a special talk by the Dominion secretary, Mrs. A. B. Smith, was given at a meeting of the branch on Tuesday in St. James's schoolroom, Woburn Road. Anything that was of interest or affected the life ■of the country women and children came within the scope of the division, said Mrs. Smith, and its aim, broadly stated, was to help towards the betterment of conditions for country women and children. The organisation was linked up, with and supported the Farmers' Union, as it believed that only by co-operation with this body could permanent betterment be effected. In addition to the social life of the division's branches which did so much to draw country women together in friendly intercourse, the W.D.F.U. did a tremendous amount of social service and welfare work, and in many parts of the country was the 'only organisation that rendered assistance in settlements remote and outside the sph-eres of city social aid centres.

Mrs. Smith dealt very fully with the work of the W.D.F.U. housekeepers who go to take temporary charge in homes where the housewife is ill or away, and it has been impossible to make any other arrangement for the care of the children and the running of the house in her absence. "Most of the work of the housekeepers is associated with sickness and maternity eases," said Mrs. Smith, "and the work the division has done speaks for itself, all the more so because it gives to the sick woman a feeling of confidence that her home will be properly looked after while she is away." Whatever portion of the housekeeper's wages above 15s the employer is un* able to pay becomes a charge on the Community chest" at head«iuarters

and in very necessitous cases the local branch assists in making up the first 15s of her salary. Every application must come in through a branch whose duty it is to send in a report of the conditions, and this gives the branch a sense of responsibility in sharing in the service. One thousand two hundred and ninety-eight applications for housekeepers were dealt with in one year, and no case has ever been turned away. Both this section of the division's activities and many of the problems met with in general organisation from day to day were described, and illustrated by the speaker with leaves from her diary. ' Mrs. Smith«was accorded a warm vote of thanks. ; An amusing competition was won |by Mrs. C. Burnard, * and afternoon tea was enjoyed. , ; Musical Recital. St. James's Hall, Lower Hutt, was filled to capacity with, an enthusiastic audience last night at a musical recital given by the pupils of Mrs. P. Tunley and the several choirs under her', training and conductorship. The greater number of the performers were very young, and their voices were pleasant to listen to, especially in the young boy soloists and in the junior and boys' choirs Solos were rendered by Jack Watson, Richard Nicholson, Peter Nichol, Shirley Knight, M. Duffy, a duet by Mesdames Wedekind and Tunley, and a trio by Prudence Dudding,- . Lebna Hunter, and Alice Tunley. Part songs were given by the ladies' choir of the Townswomen's Guild, the junior boys' choir, the junior" girls' choir, and the combined junior choirs. Pianoforte solos were played by Miss' Alice Tunley and Miss Helen Hardy, who also acted as accompanists with Mrs. Tunlay and Miss Myra Nichol. The stage was decorated with bowls of arum lilies. Mrs. Tunley wore a trained gown of black lace with a corsage spray of crimson- roses, and at the conclusion of the recital received some lovely flowers. Young beetroot leaves are a splendid, substitute for spinach, cooked in a similar way.