EMPIRE IMPRESSIONS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 230, 28 August 1937, Page 13

EMPIRE IMPRESSIONS.

NEW ZEALANDER ABROAD. WOMEN’S WELFARE WORK. Several months crowded with interest were spent by Mrs J. A. Hanan, wife of Hon. J. A. Hanan, Chancellor of the University of New Zealand, during the course of a visit to Great Britain and the Continent. As her husband represented the New Zealand Legislative Council as well as the University at the Coronation. Mrs Hanan'attended a great many of the State functions that were held in honour of the event, and also was g;ven special facilities for seeing places and undertakings that do not usually come the way of the traveller abroad. One of tlie outstanding impressions left with Mrs Hanan in connection with the Coronation was that of the great strength and unity of the Empire and its comforting stability. Greater even than that was the real'sntion that every man and woman belonging to that Empire was free to think, to speak and to act as they wished, provided they obeyed their country’s laws.

One of the places that Mrs Hanan visited was Berlin, and, in addition to visiting the university, she also visited one of the hoys’ health camps. These hoys, of whom there were in this particular camp, about 140. were taken from various parts of Germany, practically all of them belonging to the poorer parts of the country. They were not compelled to enter it, but were induced to rn there so that tfi"v might develop a bias for work on the land and also that- a love for the Fatherland might he fostered. At this camp a farm had been reclamied from a swamn, and on it the hoys grew vegetables. fruit. and all kinds of farm produce, while those who were not needed for this work were hired by neighbouring farmers to assist them with their farms. The bovs were allowed to keen the monev they earned. The first rudiments of drill were learned at this camp, -which was for hoys of 14 ’'ears >"d over.

•In speatdng of the campaign for physical fitness in Britain, Mrs Hanan said she was convinced that women had had a great deal to do with bringing about this movement. For many years they had interested themselves in welfare work and had started many organisations to further it. It was, therefore, not surprising that the movement should now have entered a wider field of work, and certainly not before it was needed. One of the places she had visited had been a London County Council settlement near Epsom Downs, where people once living in slums were now comfortably housed, each in their own cottage and ground.