HOME LIFE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 January 1928, Page 12

HOME LIFE

LADY ALICE FERGUSSON’S VIEWS ■ i DUNEDIN, January 13. “This is an age when things regarding the home and home life have become unsettled in many ways. It is partly owing to the enormous upheaval of the Great War, but it had begun a little before that. There have been very Quick and sudden changes and undreamed of development in the liberty and freedom among young people. Many women need to do a lot of clear thinking, to readjust their principles. So much is criticised today that used to be taken for granted. All round us old convictions and ideas have been shaken and things have got to be taken on a different plane. It is surely commonsense to gain what help we can by joining others who are seeking guidance.” Lady Alee Fergusson, who addressed the League of Mothers this afternoon, described with these words one of the principal objects of the organisation that she is working to strengthen. When in Dunedin sixteen months ago, she addressed a gathering of women and was instrumental in having branches of the League formed. Her address was delivered for the benefit of new and intending members of what is now a flourishing centre of the League.

In beginning her address Lady Alice Fergusson said that her visit to Dunedin, though short, was well worth while especially as she had been enabled to meet those interested in the League of Mothers, a society in which she took a very real and deep interest. Although in a way she had been instrumental in its organisation in New Zealand, it owed its existence to the Mothers’ Union, which had been going on for a long time. It was because she had seen the benefits of the Mothers’ Union and had been herself a member of the Scottish Mothers’ Union that she had turned her attention to the formation of the League. In discussing the rules of the League, Lady Alice said that the rule instructing them to teach their children obedience and self-control ■ was very important, because it was a bulwark against the faddist. A lot was heard to-day about the need for a child’s self-development—that he should be allowed to develop his own personality, and so forth. In her opinion the crank and the faddist might carry this doctrine too far. Another rule dealt with the necessity for parental control over the literature and amusements of children. This was of tremendous importance. She knew that most mothers were busy people, and could not always be running after their older children, but League mothers should know where their children were, and should not send them to the pictures without knowing the type of film that was being shown.