UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3961, 11 February 1930, Page 65

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO.

HOME SCIENCE EXTENSION SERVICE. ORGANISATIONS FOR HOMEMAKERS. The donation from the Carnegie Corporation to further adult education in Otago through home science extension teaching has been turned over by the committee to which it was entrusted, consisting of Sir James Allen (chairman), Colonel John Studholme, and Mr Norton Francis, to the council of the University of Otago, and Professor A. G. Strong, dean of the Home Science Department, has been appointed to direct the extension service. Professor Strong has had many years of experience in this line of work, and has seen its development in other countries.

A scheme of organisation and work has been prepared and accepted by the council and committee. Tutors have been advertised for and appointed as follows: — Mrs Robin Allan, organising tutor; Miss V. Macmillan, lecturer and demonstrator; Miss Isobel Crowe, office assistant. Offices have been opened in the Marama Hall, and programmes of work are under preparation.

As many people are unacquainted with the history and purpose of the movement, an account of its development may be found interesting. In Canada, farmers’ institutes were the organisations through which the agricultural colleges advised and directed the farmers of the country. They were in existence, and giving every satisfaction to the men of the-community many years before any similar organisation for their wives was effected. It was then that Mr Erland Lee, a prominent member of a Canadian farmers’ institute, after attending a meeting at which he heard Mrs Hoodless speaking on domestic science and sewing, asked her to speak the following year at his institute to a meeting of men and wbmen. At this meeting Mrs Hoodless suggested that an institute for women, similar to the Farmers’ Institute for men. be formed, and pointed out its many benefits and advantages.

Eventually it was decided to organise a women’s department of domestic economy in affiliation with the Farmers’ Institute, the object being stated as follows:—" To promote that, knowledge of household science, which shall lead to improvement in household architecture, with special attention to home sanitation, to a better understanding of the economic and hygienic knowledge of foods and fuels, to a more scientific care of children, with a view to raising the general standard of the health of our people.” As a Canadian paper stated, “ The first women’s institute was organised as a sister to the Farmers’ Institute with the purpose of giving similar care, study, and service to the home and family, as was given through the men’s organisation to the farm, the stock, and the crops.” It was not long, however, before the women of earnestness and vision saw that they had also a community responsibility, and their efforts have resulted in a linking up of the women of the country, villages, towns, and citie:, in an effort to better the community. At Stoney Creek, in Ontario, Canada, there came into being in 1897 the first Women's Institute in the world. The Canadian membership has grown from 75 in the first year to 75,000 at the present time. These figures are an indication of the success the organisation has achieved. It is obvious that this enormous organisation requires a large staff of capable, fully trained lecturers and demonstrators, as well as money to enable them to carry on the work successfully. The Canadian Government was so convinced of the value and importance of the movement that it saw fit to give it financial support. Each province of the dominion has a Government department, specially to care for the institute movement and all sorts of help is given. Thus in Ontario the Government staff of lecturers set apart for the institutes number 35, and teachers and demonstrators on various subjects are available. The organisers of institutes are supplied by the Government. University courses of three months and a special one-month course in domestic subjects, farm work, history, and literature are arranged. The Department of Agriculture not only provides the tuition free, but it gives grants towards the maintenance of students. With all this at their disposal, the women who are eager to learn are able to make use of what science and invention have to offer towards the solution of their domestic problems. It must not be thought, however, that Canada is the only place in the Empire where such an organisation exists. The idea of the movement was carried to England by Mrs Alfred Watt, herself a member of a Canadian Institute. Although she met with much opposition in forming the first English Institute in 1915, the movement has now spread rapidly throughout the British Isles, the membership being over 100,000 in England and 27,000 in Scotland. The problem of carrying out instruction is met by the members of the wealthy and leisured class, who visit the various institutes giving lectures and demonstrations. The general object of the institute in England was to link up the villages, to get the people to be friendly together, and to bring a wider outlook and increased knowledge to the members, many of whom were busy working women with but little leisure. The institutes, though under the guardianship of the Board of Agriculture, which during the war gave support in the form of a £lO,OOO grant, are self-governing and now self-supporting, the expenses being covered by a two-shilling subscription fee by each member. Naturally the conditions of rural England being very different from those of Canada, the type of organisation, method of work, and, indeed, specific aims, had to be modified to meet these conditions. The many small villages and large number of highly educated women of the wealthy and leisured class, facilitated the work and lessened the need for salaried lecturers. Other parts of the Empire have taken up the movement, and it has reached New Zealand through three channels. One organisation, being an offspring of the English Institute, resulted in the formation of women's institutes first in Hawke’s Bay by Miss Jerome Spencer, and later in other parts of the Dominion. In the second place. Mrs W. J. Polson brought from the original movement in

Canada the inspiration which resulted in the formation of the women’s division of the Farmers’ Union of New Zealand. Both need to be adapted to the New Zealand conditions, and could, without sacrifice of purpose, unite their efforts into one organisation instead of working as separate units, for their origin is the same.

Another movement with practically the same object has been launched in Canterbury through the leadership of Miss M. A. Blackmore, who, having toured in England and America, brought back the idea ot and organised the Home Economics Association many years before either of the other movements were started. Duneuin adopted the same name when the Otago Home Economics Association was organised in 1922. These two associations necessarily limited their activities to the city and its suburbs, through Lack of workers whose time and energy could be devoted to organising in tne country districts. Their constant aim was • >*? s P r ead their influence as far as possible, and to this end exhibits were held at the A\ inter Show and at the Dunedin and South Seas Exhibition, illuskitchen planning and equipment, they further gave a thrift exhibit, and lectures and demonstrations were given iu the home science department of the Otago L Diversity, for the purpose of rais ing funds with which to pub’ish bulletins _ for a reading course in home economics. Two large bulletins and two pamphlets were thus financed and distributed throughout the Dominion. The home science staff contributed labour time, and training to this work, and to that of giving lectures and demonstrations monthly, open to homemakers When opportunity offered Professor Strong and other members of the stall visited outlying communities to attend meetings called by the secretary of the Farmers’ Union, and to sessions of the travelling school organised by Mr Ten nent, of the Agricultural Extension Service. They advocated the organisation of women into such associations. Wireless talks were given throughout one year, but it was found that unless a stall could be secured whose time could lx devoted to this work little progress could be hoped for. Efforts were made by those interested in the movement to secure assistants fo: Mr Tennent to carry out work after th” manner of that done in Canada am! United States, but although the Government was sympathetic, it had no money available to give financial support. Appeals were finally made to philanthropi. institutions, with the result that the Carnegie Corporation, knowing the value and scope of this work, and considering it a suitable and worthy object, made this year to the University of Otago a grant of £l5OO annually for five years, this money to be administered by a trust board and to be spent in the upkeep of an office and a staff of trained women, capable of carrying out the work among the women of Otago. The Government has shown its support and sympathy’ by making a £ for £ subsidy, and it is almost certain that should success attend the experiment in Otago, the matter will be adopted as a Government undertaking, and become Dominion-wide. Offices have been established at the University of Otago, and with Professor Strong, dean of the home science department, directing the work, three home science graduates have been appointed to organise classes and study’ groups and to tour the district, giving lectures and demonstrations.

The chief problem now is that of the channels through which to reach the rural women. It is not desired to launch yet another Dominion-wide women’s movement in opposition to the women’s institutes and the women's division of the Farmers’ Union, to the Home Economics Association, the Mothers’ League, and the W.E.A., though membership of these organisations is, as stated in their rules, limited to persons having certain qualification, while the service offered by the Home Science Extension workers is free for all women. These considerations complicate the position, and make the inauguration of the sei vice far more difficult than it would be if the women were all united in one large organisation as in Canada, England, or the United States. In the last-mentioned country, the movement is financed largely by Federal and State, subsidies to each State university, where the work for men is conducted through the agricultural college, and the work tor women through the home economics colleges. The organisation is unified throughout the whole country, for the work in each separate section varies according to local requirements. The service is called a bureau, and indeed the Federal Government maintains in Washington a Bureau of Home Economics.

“ Our idea in New Zealand is,” Professor Strong says. “ to unify efforts to improve health and family welfare. We are prepared through our own bureau located at the university, to give assistance and advice to any’ organisation or individual as far as we are capable. It is greatly to be hoped that some federation of women’s organisations with similar aims may be effected and a central executive formed through which the necessary aid and service may be issued. The bureau works independent of the control of any one organisation, but it is open for useful co-operation by’ all. We have the money and the staff, and the knowledge is ready. To what extent will the women of Otago use it? An informal visit has been paid by’ the organiser, Mrs Robin Allan, to various parts of the Otago province, where she consulted with presidents and secretaries of institutes and women’s divisions, in order to find out their willingness to co-operate, what was wanted by their groups, and to explain what the Home Science Extension Service has to offer. Progress will of necessity be slow at first, but the unqualified success of the Canadian movement, in which the universities supply the tutors and the Government the funds, gives us every confidence that our service, run on similar lines, and with similar ideals, will ultimately become one of the greatest factors making for happy, healthy, successful life throughout the Dominion.”