MISS STEVENSON’S ADDRESS

Evening Star, Issue 17925, 22 March 1922, Page 2

MISS STEVENSON’S ADDRESS

There 'was a good' attendance at the Burns Hall last evening, when a mass meeting for girls was held under tho auspices of the Y.W.C.A. Dr Marion Whyte presided, and welcomed tho visiting'leader, Miss Joan Stevenson, who then led’ the girls in community singing, being assisted by an orchestra. The girls themselves chose bho songs, and joined together in tho singing most heartily. Tho next item, the recitation of ‘ Now Zea-.aiK, by Miss Kathleen Olcndinning, was really an 'introduction to a fong ceremony in which several girls took part. Representing such things as the spirits of bervice, Knowledge, Covo. and Inspiration, they prepared the way for the addiress which was to follow. All the girls then joined in ‘God Bless Our Native Land.’ Mi-s Stevenson said that though her subject was ‘A Girl and Her Country,’ she was really going to talk to them a girl's part'in .a new world. As citizens we all held certain beliefs which were our national ideals, and they were one thing which vve would have to make new. Once, she said, she used to think that Great Britain was a great nation because it covered such a lot of territory on tho map. But it was not territory, or power, or money that made a country truly great, but the quality of life to be found in their citizen?. Where all were able to work and receive a fair reward for their labor, and to use their leisure wisely; v.’hrro there was the best type of family life; where the people were able to enjoy the best in art. and literature,_ and music: and where there was happiness and contentment and 'health —there tho country was truly great, though it might not cover much "territory or rank among the nations ns a great Rower. To show how this true greatness might bo achieved hv a nation, Miss Stevenson described a French girl’s estimate of the now spirit that came to her country in tho war ns a result of tho practical expression of tho ideal embodied in “la pabrie how overv man and woman 'found the necessity to* work for their country, and how they found that all work was of equal value, sinco it was^ all necessary. From this arose tho realisation that all people wore of equal value, a new appreciation of one another, and a now spirit of service and responsibility. These ideils Miss Stevenson urged 1 tho girls to put into practice in their own daily livefi, stressing the point that in God's eight all service and all people were of equal value. She pointed to the words on t-iie association’s triangle—loyalty, service. comradeship—which sho said were the ideals that she wished the girls to take away with them. Her closing note was tho ’ will of God carried into tho humblest tacks, which were all necessary to make the right kind of a world. The girls followed the speaker with evident, attention, and then joined in their song, ‘Lead On, O King Eternal.’

A reception was tendered) to Miss .Stevenson in the afternoon by the Board of Directors of the Y.W.C.A., at which a targe number of association- members and personal friends of Miss Stevenson were prerent. The mayor (Mr J. S. Douglas)* cordially welcomed Miss Stevenson back to Dunedin, her native city, and spoke in appreciative terms of the work of the Y.W.C.A. Miss Stevenson, in a brief speech, traced the development of tho Y.W.C.A. from its very beginnings in 1852. Existing a-3 a concrete expression of a social consciousness on tho part of woman, it underwent many changes, in accordance with tho changing conditions of their lives; but through it all the association aimed that girls should be splendid in health and- vigorous in mind, with an insuiration for service.