WOMEN'S INSTITUTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22195, 23 August 1935, Page 4

WOMEN'S INSTITUTES

EXHIBITS AT BANGOR [from our own correspondent] LONDON, July 6 Miss A. Kane, of Wellington, has been in N<>rth Wales in connection with the annual exhibition of handicraft by the Carnarvonshire Federation of Women's Institutes, held at University College, Bangor. Mrs. Drage, who has been ill New Zealand, porformed the opening ceremony. She read a message of loyalty and good wishes which tho County Federation was forwarding to the' King on tho occasion of his Silver Jubilee. Tho federation also expressed gratitude to the Queen for unceasing interest in tho women of the country. The standard of tho work, continued .Mrs. Drage, was better than ever. An alteration in the method of judging had resulted in fairer classification of the branches for under the previous method the smaller branches were at a numerical disadvantage. Now the marks were determined on a percentage basis. In introducing Miss Kane, Mrs. Drage praised the work done by her in New Zealand. Miss Kane, who was presented with a bouquet and accorded a warm welcome, said she had had the pleasure of welcoming Mrs. Drage to New Zealand. There were nearly 700 institutes all over the country. Some of them were very scattered and the work of organisation was full of difficulty, but it was being done well. Good work was also being done among tho Maori women, who, in some places, had branches of their own. Their ability at handicraft was well known, butowing to the ease with which things could be bought nowadays they had grown out of the creative habit. They were now redeveloping it with startling results. The difficulty had been to get them to do their own organising, but that was gradually being got over and they were rapidly learning to run their own institutes.