Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, MAY 31, 1930 IN PRAISE OF BRITISH WOMEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 31 May 1930, Page 8

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, MAY 31, 1930 IN PRAISE OF BRITISH WOMEN

THE most thrilling event of the week, so far as the British Empire is concerned, is the successful termination of Miss Amy Johnson's solo flight from England to Australia. The brave aviatrix has exhibited the highest qualities—physical endurance, wonderful nerve-power, marvellous judgment, and courage which is the admiration of the world—to say nothing of her technical knowledge of aviation, without which her great adventure must have failed, 'ihat a young woman, with no one to depend on or to help her, should -have set out on such an aerial journey, would have been sufficiently remarkable in itself, but .that she should,, after .encountering all sorts of difficulties;::.i have u.ached her destination triumphantly, awakens amazement, and elicits uribounded praise.. Miss 'Johnson has' done a thing which redounds to the Honour of her sex, and raises her and the women of her race to a pinnacle'of fame which should stir the' emulation of women of other races. Lady Heath and Lady Bailey have made notable solo flights in Africa, and the Duchess ■of Bedford has flown from Cairo to CapeTown and back, with' a pilot, to popularise the great African route; but Miss Johnson's performance is in a class by itself, and she easily bears the*palm for high': courage among women. Her wonderful performance goes to provo that women of the British race stand out prominently from the rest of womankind by reason of the fortitude with which they court danger, and carry to success hazardous enterprises.

But courage and physical enduranco have long been the characteristics of Biitish women. It has been said that it was the staunchness of the British woim.il during the World War which guve victory to the Allies, since they boio with ' unflinching fortitudo privations, hardships, and poignant losses, which broke the spirit of the German women and compelled them to demand peace. It must be remembered, that those high qualities in the British women of 1914-18, which have been so much admired, were inherited qualities: they were qualities which were exhibited by British women who, in bygone years, helped the men of their race to found the British Empire by establishing British colonies in the four quarters of the globe. Raskin, when asked to name tins outstanding quality wbich would cause the British race to bo remembered by posterity, replied, "That they built ships." That apothegm is true as far as it goes, but it was the use to which the British put their ships which has made them so outstanding a race. For it was by means of their ships that they were able to conquer the ocean and take possession of those wild and waste lands which to-day are flourishing Dominions, a strength to the British race, and the hope of its future.' And it must be remembered that those Do minions could never have become what they are, but for the fortitude and physical strength of British women who willingly shared all the privations and dangers of their menfolk who were determined to make new homes across the

seas. That was the spirit which crowned the colonisation of New Zealand with success. That remarkable man, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, had declared that his ; ideal was "to cut out a small wedge of England, and to transplant it to New Zealand." That meant that he wished .his . colonists !to be representative of every class of English society, and the marvellous' judgment of the New Zealand Company, in making its selections of those who should sail for the Antipodes, is one of the wonderful features of the magnificent work which it performed. For Wakefield and his colleagues foresaw clearly the difficulties and hardships which were inseparable from colonisation, and they wanted no feeble or faint-hearted folk among the gallant bands of pioneers whom they .we're, despatching to the ■jfar-oft'.Jarid which they .sought to., turn, and which to-day is turned, into the Britain of the South. Wakefield's "wedge" consisted not only of people from every stratum of society, but of their children as well; which made the undertaking the more difficult, and its achievement the, more wonderful. So it will be seen what an important part the women played in the colonisation of our country. And what wonderful women they were, for not only were they full of courage, but of health and vitality as well. Not only did they cheerfully bear all the hardships of pioneering, but bore and bred their families an surroundings which were primitive and often dangerous. And what families they were ! often eight or nine sitting at table with their parents, to partake of the frugal but wholesome meal which the father had won from the soil, and his wife had cooked at her open fireplace of clay. There are living to-day in Nelson a man and his wife, both well up in years, the one of them the last of a. family of twelve children of pioneer parents, and the other the hist of such a family of fen. The wives of New Zealand's pioneers were incomparable, the very salt of the earth, heroines in the true sense of the word. Take as a sample the first white woman who set eyes on lake laupo. She arrived there with \w-' husband, three small children, and a baby in arms. Beside the Lake her family increased to ten (including two •sets of twins) and that with no doctor or nurse nearer than Auckland. And like the parents, the children are tough —seven of them are still alive in New

Zealand, and one in England; tho youngest of thorn 63 years old ! " Tho story of the women, who founded New Zealand is the story of those who founded Australia, Newfoundland, Natal, Neva Scotia, New Brunswick, the Western Provinces of Canada, and tho British colonies of Now England, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and tho rest of tho seceded colonies which have become the United States of America. Without the help of British women there would have been to-day no such United States, and no British Dominions!

The spirit which brought Miss Amy Johnson across the world in her aeroplane, is the spirit which has characterised British women in all ages. Hers is but tho most modern exemplification of that bravery which has imbued the women .of her race tfor hundreds of years. True, her courage and crfduranco show themselves in a now form, but the high qualities which have won for her the admiration of the civilised world, are the same whioh in all ages have made British women the. greatest in the world.