COUNTRY WOMEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23418, 7 August 1939, Page 3

COUNTRY WOMEN

DIVISION'S PRESIDENT FRIEND OF FARMERS' WIVES TRIBUTES TO MRS. NOEL ADAMS Farmers' wives have a sympathetic champion in the newly-elected Dominion president of the Women's Division of the Farmers' U.nion, for Mrs. Noel Adams, Clcvedon, is an enthusiast with energy and spirit matching that of her predecessors. She is an Englishwoman with a great love for the land of her adoption. An enthusiast on national service, Mrs. Adams' owli wartime experiences aro awakening her to all the possibilities of a national emergency, and she is already urging the members of branches to enlist themselves in what capacity they can.v

.Mrs. Adams' connection with the Women's Bivision dates from the 1920'5. She has been president of her Waitemata executive for a number of years, and a Bominion vice-president for the last three. Possibly the experience gained in running her division executive has contributed to Mrs. Adams' 'distinct flair for chairmanship and organisation. Coupled with her gift for this is her easy manner and her quick sense of humour.

Immediate Confidence

Those who come into contact with her not only feel an immediate confidence in her, but find themselves sharing jokes that open up the way to friendship and mutual understanding. She shares common ground with the dairy-farmer's wife who can still preserve a sense of humour when she has to get up at 5 a.m. and wado through a winter's ntud to the cow bails each morning.

Although Mrs. Adams has been fortunato, as she willingly admits, in that she lias never had to do likewise, she understands only too well the case of the woman who spends the greater portion of her life at it. Her knowledge and sympathy spring from direct contacts made greatly through the Women's Bivision.

"They are the finest crowd I can think of, just between you and me," said Mrs. Adams in an interview, referring to the farmer's wives. "They are full of kindness and friendship." One of tho most joyful things about country life to her is the friendship the women of the farms have for each other —always ready and willing to help their neighbours. Pioneer Spirit

The division is always active in every country district with its ever-extended helping hand, and in this connection Mrs. Adams' most intimate contacts with the hardest side of life on the land are made. She has a store of anecdotes and stories illustrating that the pioneer spirit is still going strong, and that farmers' wives are helping to carry the burdens of the day with as much spirit as their grandmothers in the "good old days." The country trains women to know their values, and to choose them well, too. Mrs. Adams is one of the most vivid and personalities yet chosen to lead the Women's Division of the Farmers' Union, and she is a tilting successor to a line of presidents of the same calibre.