"WONDERFUL WOMEN."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19860, 2 February 1928, Page 7

"WONDERFUL WOMEN."

NEW ZEALANDERS PRAISED. OPPORTUNITY FOR IMMIGRANTS VISIT OF SWEDISH JOURNALJST. "I think your New Zealand woman are wonderful. They are so capable anil so adaptable, and they work eo hard." This opinion was expressed yesterday by Miss Karin Warnholtz, a visitor from Sweden, who is making a close study of life and conditions in New Zealand. "They seem to be going, all day long," she continued, "and in spite of the way they work they entertain one so delightfully. They keep so aibreast, too, with all that is going on in the world. I have the greatest admiration for them." Asked if women did not work as hard in her own country. Miss Warnholtz said she did not think so. The conditions of life were different, and there was not such a scarcity of domestic help. Regarding careers for women in Sweden, Miss Warnholtz said practically every walk in lifs was open to them. "Certainly we have not yet got women clergy, nor have wo women in Parliament, but nearly everything else is theirs. Ln medicine they seem to have done. very well indeed, and at Malmoa,. in one of our biggest hospitals, it is a woman who is at the head." Achievements of Women. Discussing the achievements of women Miss Warnholtz was inclined to think that we should soon be reaching the point where there would be a bisj swing backwards. "A woman's brain," she said, "is different from that of a man. There is no getting away from it. Her aptitudes, her characteristics, are all different, and yet modern education treats her as though they were the same. The result affects the home. A girl grows up with the idea that she must have a career. She is trained for it, and her natural propensities do not have their outlet. Very likely she marries and ntill she wants to keep on with her outside work. Whaii happens almost invariably is that the homo and the children suffer." The case of a young engineer whom she had met was quoted. Both his father and mother had been in business, and although all his physical needs had been attended to and he had beon given a thoroughly good education, there hs.d been one great lack. "It was not homfl, because my mother was so little in it," * he had told her. Now that women had , gained so much in the way of political enfranchisement, Miss Warnhclf.z thought they were beginning to realise that the things which they had pushed on one side rather contemptuously as unnecessary had their place in the scheme of things, and rather a big place at that. "Because of 'this freedom,' they can now put them on a better footing," she said. Education in Sweden. A great deal is done for education in Sweden, and there are some remarkably fine schools —"almost too fine," Miss Warnholtz said. "Languages receive special attention," she said: "Placed us we are, we must know at least two c? three besides oar own. English is greatly used in business, so, too, is German, and Frepch is looked upon as being necessary for the cultural side of life. Sport and games play a big part in building up a healthy physique, &nd when winter comes nearly the whole of Sweden skates. "There are a great many rivers in Sweden, and consequently there is a great deal of electricity used, particularly in the homes. It is absolutely .* godsend there to the women. A great many of our trains, are run by electric power, anji they simply spoil one for others. I feel like a negro after 1 have been travelling in trains driven by coal." ... Immigration is a matter whicn is being studied by Miss Warnholtr., as she is keen to find out what opportunities there may be in New Zealand for Swedish people. "There are not enough openings for our mechanics, particularly in engineering, and we have heard much; of New Zesuand," she said. Miss Warnholtz is correspondent for two leading newspapers in Sweden, and is also writing for a number of illustrated papers. She will shortly go to Russell, where she hopes to see something of the deep-sea fishing.