PRINCIPAL PROTESTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 1, 2 January 1943, Page 8

PRINCIPAL PROTESTS

EQUAL BENEFITS WANTED FOR GIRLS • ■'*■'•' ■ i

A protest against the attitude' of a New Plymouth institution which over a period of years has- assisted the Boys' High School but has not extended similar patronage to the Girls' High School was made by Miss D. N. Allan, M.A., principal of the girls' school, at the annual breakirtg-up ceremony. Miss Allan appealed to the fathers of the girls to use their influence in an endeavour to obtain for their daughters those benefits which, their sons already enjoyed. "This institution is wealthy,'! .said Miss Allan. "How does it make its wealth? By wisely handling what is lent to it by thrifty men and women. From its profits it offers scholarships to boys to enable them to-attend hig-h school wtih the hope that later they will be of help to New Zealand, perhaps .through scientific research. But are boys alone capable of doing research work, or is there such a thing as radium, and was there such a person, as Madame Marie Curie? PRIZE THAT DID NOT MATERIALISE. "When asked by the Old Girls' Association to extend its patronage .to girls the institution refused. Asked later by the National Council of Women, it pondered, and went so .far as to consider giving us a prize for an essay. But this war came—so it didn't. To the Boys' High School over a period of years nine scholarships were offered, each worth £100 for five years, making a total of £4500: For the Girls' Higlf School there has been the shadow of an essay prize which has nevei: materialised : "I have always, felt," continued Miss Allan, "that it was because pioneer women stood shoulder to shoulder with ' thier men that the New, Zealand sense of justice was so strong, and that our women were given the vote long before English women, and the University of New Zealand was the first in the British Empire to grant * degrees to young women graduates as well as'to young men. "You may say that a man has a right to do what he will with his own, perhaps—but has not even a New Plymouth institution a duty to Taranaki's daughters as well as to its sons. In the life of an ordinary human family, what mother hasn't said at times, 'I'll tell your father,' and -Wait till your father comes home.' •We ask the fathers here present to use their influence."