THE PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN'S TRAINING INSTITUTE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15822, 22 July 1913, Page 3

THE PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN'S TRAINING INSTITUTE.

For a number of years the Presbyterian Church of New .Zealand has boen training women for service as deaconesses in the home church and as missionaries in the foreign field. The course of study covers two years of 40 weeks each year, and there is a proposal to lengthen the course t;> three years. The list of lecturers includes the names of the Revs. James Aitkon, M.A., H. Barton, M.A., W. Gray Dixon, M.A., Professor Hewitson, J. S. Ponder, A. Whyte, M.A., 8.D., Miss lies?, M.A , Miss- Alexander, 8.A., Drs Siedebcrg, Collier, and Church. At present there are nine students on the roll of the institute, one of them a Master of Science of the New Zealand University and a volunteer for service in India or China, and another, a former pupil of the Maori Girls' School, who is hoping to work among her own people. Of former students, several are deaconesses in New Zealand, one a missionary to the Maoris, one the travelling secretary of the Women's Missionary Union for the dominion, nine are missionaries in the Canton Villages, one in the New Hebrides, and two are in the service of the liOndon Missionary Society—one in Samoa and one in China, Some years ago the Young Women's Bible Class in Knox Church made the first contribution to a fund to buy premises for the institute. Last veai - the Women's Union added con-

siderablv to the fund, and the branches of the union in the Dunedin Presbytery intend making an effort next month to increase the fund further. The committee of the institute, of which Profes--or ncwitson is the convener and Mr W. H. Adams the treasurer, felt justified in recently buying a property in Cumberland street, overlooking the Museum Reserve, and the institute is now well and comforta.bly housed. The success of the quiet work that has been done for years 'is largely due to tho untiring interest and wise prevision of the lady superintendent, Mrs Blackie.