SCHOOL GIRLS’ HOSTELS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 6 November 1926, Page 3

SCHOOL GIRLS’ HOSTELS.

PUPILS FROM THE COUNTRY. YVOMEN’S UNION, PROPOSAL. Dealisnv with the fourth of the seventeen. objects of the YY’oinen’s Division oi the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, Airs W. E. Carter, who addressed the inaugural South Taranaki meeting at Hawera on Thursday, gave further explanation to a Star reporter yesterday concerning the reasons for its inclusion in the aims of the division. As was published in the Star on Tuesday, together with sixteen other aims, the particular clause reads:

“To improve the system of board lor country children attending high schools.”

“1 think that a great deal could be done in this matter by providing hostels for the pupils,” stated Mrs Carter, “t have heard of cases where the system of private boarding has had very bad results, more especially in the case of girls. The children are thrown too much upon their own resources at an age when .such a thing is not desirable. Very often the person who is boarding them is not in the position to exercise the desired influence in moulding the character of the girls during the critical period of adolescence, and better results could be looked for if the girls were accommodated in properly conducted hostels.

“in a hostel everybody has the same treatment. The food, if plain, is generally sufficient. There is a proper system of control, and arrangements are made for study hours, thus giving the children an opportunity to group their advantages. In private homes the conditions are not always so propitious. The girls have sometimes to do their studying in cold rooms, without adequate heating arrangements. Occasionally proper arrangements for bathing are lacking, and sleeping accommodation ds unsuitable. Then they are sometimes expected to assist in domestic duties, when they 7 should he studying or relaxing after the day’s work at school, and in a houseful of grown-ups they mnv he confronted with distractions which would interfere with their studies.” DOMESTIC IMMIGRANT’S.

Mrs Cartel' also relerred to the interest taken by the division in the assisted immigration of domestics from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and stated that any member desirous of obtaining the services of such was invited to communicate with, the secretary of the Women’s Division, Box 715, Wellington. The; division had recently directed a series of questions to the Immigration Department, and among the replies received were the following:— The Hindi Commissioner for New Zealand in London controls tlie organisation charged with the duty of selecting suitable women between the ages of IS and 40 years for migration to New Zealand as domestics. Domestics may he nominated or they mav make application direct to the High Commissioner for consideration under the applied passage scheme Approved domestics are granted free passages in third-class accommodation, and are given a gratuity of £2—half is given in London, and the other half onriirrival at port of destination. The girls must travel third class, under the supervision of a Government matron.. The recognised minimum wage is 25s per week and girls are rarely allotted to positions at lower remuneration. In the year 1025-20 the distribution of domestics'was ns follows : Auckland. 123; Canterbury, 69; Hawke’s Bar, 33; Nelson. I; Otago. 34; Southland. 11; Taranaki, 7; Wellington, 225; Westland, 1; total, 504.