ANIMAL WELFARE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21233, 13 July 1932, Page 12

ANIMAL WELFARE.

DISSENSION IN SOCIETY.

QUESTION OF RESIGNATIONS.

WOMEN WORKERS' COMPLAINTS

The trouble that has arisen between the main committee of tho Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the ladies' committee of the society was ventilated at a special meeting of the ladies' committee held on Monday evening. The meeting had been called by tho president of the society, Mr. James B. Donald, for the purpose of discussion. A letter was read stating that 27 members of the ladies' committee had signed a resignation form giving tho following reasons:—(l) Studied insults on tho part of a section of the general committee to the ladies' committee and its president; (2) deprivation of the right (given under the rules of the society by past committees to tho ladies' committee) of a voice in the disposal of the moneys raised by them; (3) obstruction of magazine publication which carried on juvenile propaganda woi'k, and lack of sympathy and interest in that important work by committee men.

Tho letter explained that theso members had withheld their resignations on learning that Mr. Donald wished to discuss the position with them. They were anxious to do something practical for un-cared-for animals, but they did not wish to be hampered any longer by committee men. Mr. Donald, in urging the members to let bygones be bygones, said it would be senseless for tho main committee of the society to work against such a splendid band of Jielpors as the ladies' committee. He undertook to see that the rulc3 which the women had drawn up were accepted by the skeleton committee now administering tho society's affairs. Deep resentment was expressed by one member at the conduct of the chairman and a committee man in challenging the vote of tho representative of tho ladies' committee. Through the neglect of the committee it was stated an alteration to the society's rules, making the president of the ladies' committee ex officio a member of tho main committee, had not been registered. Taking advantage of this, it was alleged, the men challenged her vote when, half-way through the year, they found her vote against them. _ A member urged that the main committee should take steps to secure a home, however small, for stray animals, in order that the object for which the women had raised hundreds of pounds might materialise. Sho said the public were asking for something tangible and that to hold tho money until it reached a sum sufficient for the erection of elaborate buildings would not help the cause of stray animals to-day. Tho president expressed agreement and promised to place tho views of the meeting before the committee. Tho committee would also have placed before it the question of junior league propaganda in "Animal Welfaro" and tho question of the right of women workers to have a voice in the disposal of the largo sums of money they raised.