CONSIDERATION OF REMITS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27096, 2 June 1949, Page 10

CONSIDERATION OF REMITS

GREATER PROTECTION FOR WOMEN Among the remits before the conference was one advocating the reinstatement of capital punishment and the introduction of more drastic punishment for prisoners convicted of sexual offences against women and children. - Speaking in support of these resolutions, which were afterwards adopted with resounding unanimity, Mrs W. H. Elliott, Clarendon, said that in Wellington the position was reported as being.very serious—indeed, women there were said to be unwilling to attend everting meetings. Women’s organisations, including the WDFF, were preparing for a deputation to the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, and the Minister of Justice, Mr Mason, to ask for more rigorous punishment for offences against women and girls. The practical difficulties of housekeeping in rural districts received attention during the discussion of a remit from Queenstown urging the Government to expedite rural power reticulation. It was felt that farming households too often lacked the labour saving devices which were necessary to them and were more easily obtained in the towns. The remit was carried, but' another asking that the Government be urged to subsidise the cost of refrigerators was lost, speakers pointing out that it would not be wise to ask the Government to do too much. Difficulties in the education of children in the country were the subject of remits from Glenorchy, Arrowtown and Cromwell. It was considered that country schools should be continued wherever this was at all possible. Many mothers found it very difficult to supervise correspondence school lessons; some of them had not the time, and some, of them were unsuited for the task. Even if the teacher of a country school was not so well qualified as might be wished, a full-time person was thought to be better than a mother distracted by other duties. Where a mother engaged a governess to supervise the children’s studies a minimum allowance of £1 per week should be paid was an Arrowtown recommendation passed to be forwarded' to the Dominion conference. A more homeiy note was struck when members described the present unscientific methods of grading cream in dairy factories, where the tester put a finger into the cream, tasted it, and then spat it on the floor. A remit urging a more scientific method was adopted. During the afternoon session of the conference Professor G. F. Knight spoke of his experiences with * UNNRA in Eastern Europe, and his impressions of the Communist way of life in Hun-

gary.