COUNTRY WOMEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23829, 8 June 1939, Page 3

COUNTRY WOMEN

AFFAIRS AT HOME AND ABROAD MRS W. H. ELLIOTT’S ADDRESS RESPONSIBILITY OF DIVISION The economic position of New Zealand to-day, the desire for peace throughout the world, the responsibility of country women, and the call for moral rearmament were subjects dealt with by Mrs W, H. Elliott in her presidential address at the annual Otago Provincial Conference of the Women’s Division of the New Zealand Fanners’ Union. She appealed to women to realise their great responsibility and do their best to cultivate a moral standard worthy of the highest ideals. Farmers’ Economic Position “Considering the fact that our organisation is comprised of great many women on the land, Mrs Elliott said, “ we naturally are concerned about our economic position to-day. We do not flatter ourselves that we are the backbone of the country. Everybody who is prepared to give an honest day s work and co-operate in and not hinder the progress of the country is the backbone, but we do know full well that the returns from our produce indicate the financial prosperity of our people and help us to meet our obligations overseas. Along with other sections of the country, we are asked to enlarge our production, but what encouragement have we to do so? “ Lowering prices, rising costs and unstable markets do not encourage it,” she continued. “ The fact that we are not enjoying full reciprocity with our Motherland and sister dominions does not encourage it either. Our geographical position, combined with our small population, does not encourage increased production if we are to lose some of our overseas markets. The farmer and his family cooperate for their livelihood perhaps more so than other sections of the community, and the hours per day are not considered in the production. After all our labours, we would appreciate a credit balance with which to improve our holdings, but for most of us the rising costs and other troubles keep our returns unfortunately a debit balance. Why should the farmer be expected to produce for the community at a disadvantage to himself? Is it any wonder with all these factors against us that we are deeply concerned and apprehensive for the future?

Plea for World Peace

“ We of the British Empire pledge ourselves to work for peace,” Mrs Elliott said, “but are we to be allowed to keep this peace? The word peace does not rise so readily to our lips these days as does the question, will we be dragged into war? Over 20 years ago we fought a war with the belief that it was a war to end war and the world would be a safer and sweeter place to live in. To-day we find nations at war, and nations, as Earl Baldwin expresses it, ‘ standing at armed attention.’ The lust for power and the sanctifying of war as an ideal are the devastating reply to all lovers of peace. Earl Baldwin very concisely expresses what'we stand for in the world to-day. His words were: ‘An ordered freedom within the law, with force in the background not in the foreground, a society in which authority and freedom are blended in due proportion, in which State and citizen are both ends and means.’ These blessings of ours have been dearly bought, and if it comes to a national crisis we will have to keep faith with those who lie ‘in Flanders fields where poppies grow.’ We women will do our part to keep that faith and to hold our cherished blessings for our children and future generations. Do not let us dwell on the horrors of war, but let us pray unceasingly, and the power of prayer is wonderful, that right will prevail over might.

A Big Responsibility

“We are an organisation of New Zealand country women with philanthropic, educational, cultural, and spiritual aspirations,” Mrs Elliott continued. “.Embracing all these features as we do. we set ourselves a very big responsibility. Responsibility, most people agree, is the foundation of all good character, and causes us to discharge our duties towards others. Perhaps the sense of responsibility is more highly developed in woman than in man, but this is due largely to training. Girls in the home have to take

more responsibility than boys. People can be too selfish in their responsibilities, and this might lead to another form of selfishness in that members of a family or community do not take their full share.”

There was a very definite urge among women to-day to be of some use in the world, she continued. One needed only to look around at the numerous organisations of women workers to verify this. Responsibility of this kind was not sought after—it came direct from the heart. Every woman had this something in her. It was an attribute from Nature. Unfortunately, some women had allowed it to become latent in them, whilst others again had cultivated it to its fullest capacity. Nature had fitted women with brain power, and they were expected to use their brain so that they might be an asset and not a liability to their neighbours and community. To be an asset did not require a brilliant brain—it required only that a woman used her brain and energies and time in a commonsense way with sound judgment and tolerance. Moral Responsibility “Moral responsibility arrests us also,” Mrs Elliott said, “It has been said: ‘The moral standard of the world is just what women make it; that the men merely live up or down to their standard, and in th* main they merely conform to what women in general expect of them. If this is correct, oir responsibility in this direction is fairly heavy and much is expected from us. The training of the children in the home is generally the work of the mother. The nature of her work keeps her much in the home and the children with her, and it is her standard of life that will be the dominating influence in their later lives so that that influence must be clean and sweet. “ The call for moral re-armament in the world to-day is a challenge to everybody,” she stated. “We blame rapidly-changing world conditions for our downward moral slide. But should we? I don’t think so. It is ourselves who are to blame. Our mral armament has been temporarily discarded in the hectic rush of modern life. We are not living up to our creed which teaches us ‘to take time fox all things,’ and because of this the most important things in life are being neglected.” This year New Zealanders were preparing for the celebrations to be held next year for the centennial of their land, and these embrace memorials to the pioneers. People to-day were prone to believe that the pioneers’ lives must have been drab and dull. Judging from the present day standard of living perhaps they were and perhaps not. They certainly suffered greater difficulties, disappointments and disillusionments than people to-day, but their moral armament gave them the faith and courage to win through for future generations. “We are trustees in every sense of the word for our pioneer people the world over,” Mrs Elliott said, “ and they expect good results from our stewardship. But we can give good results only if we are morally armed. The power lies with us, as it did with them, to shape the young life and cultivate the mind in the right direction. We carry this power into our everyday life in the world. Wherever we live, we are sure to have some effect on the community either for good or evil. The late King George said: ‘The foundations of national glory are set in the homes jf the people, and they will remain unshaken while our family life is simple and pure.’

“Surely the women of the world will realise their share in this responsibility,” Mrs Elliott concluded, “ and take up the challenge, and do their best to cultivate a moral standard worthy of the highest ideals.”