MISS BONDFIELD

Southland Times, Issue 19277, 23 June 1924, Page 6

MISS BONDFIELD

DOMESTICS FOR NEW ZEALAND. THE ATHENTIC PARTY. LONDON, April 30. A feature of the send-off given to the party of domestics sailing for New Zealand to-morrow by the Athenic was the address given them by Miss Margaret Bondfield, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour—“oor Maggie” to her own friends and to the millions of working women in the Midlands and North where she is so well known. Miss Bondfield shows a happy felicity in her address on occasions of this sort. Far from exhibiting that ferocity of antipathy to migration overseas which hitherto was wont to mark the outpourings of Labour leaders, Miss Bondfield addressed them in happy phrases in which she assured them of her belief that they would in their new country make happy settlers.

She did not hesitate to tell them how much depended on themselves, and in that respect her address was a model. She assured them that on their way, if they tried to make other people happier, then they themselves would be happier. Having emphasised that they were going to a new country to live under new conditions, she dwelt on the wrongness of going out with the preconceived notion that English ways were best, told them not to say right off that they know better, but to say they were delighted to know a new way of doing things, and to try to learn these ways of t-heir new home, which were probably suited to the new conditions. In that way they would prove themselves good citizens, and thereby broaden their own lives and personalities. Miss Bondfield, commenting on the agreement under which they, as new settlers for New Zealand were sailing, said that one clause struck her forcibly—that they should undertake to remain single twelve months. Well, she said, if they were remaining here they would be asking themselves if they would still be single in twelve years. But she did not dwell on her little joke, blit on the responsibility which lay in the grils to keep their pledge. Their’s was the responsibility for the good name of English girls. She pointed out the further responsibility that lay on them that if after they had kept the pledge, if they were found to be of “a decent sort” than the New Zealand people would want more, they would want to send for their friends. On them indeed lay the responsibility for all the rest of the gills in this country. “We all belong to one family in the Old Country and overseas,” said Miss Bondfield. Later they might be of those settled down and with their homes in New Zealand. If, said Muss Bondfield, the girls kept these things in view she was convinced they would find their new life full of pleasant adventure. She asked them to remember to give a good day’s work. If a girl was not quite i happy, she was not bound to stay in one place. The Immigration Department was always ready to help them in difficulty. A new settler was bound to have difficulties in a new country, and the Department provided safeguards for their well-being and their protection. She concluded by congratulating the girls on their chance, and

hoped their star—as she was sure they did —was a good one, an entry into very happy home life in which they would prosper exceedingly. Sir James and Lady Allen welcomed Misa Bondfield, while Mr Standford and Misa Hanlon, of the Immigration Department, were, as always, helping in the send-off. Mr Standford, in a jolly little speech, introduced Miss Maclean, the matron, to the assembled girls, and thanked Miss Bondfield for her address.

It is interesting to add that in a recent speech in Wales Miss Bondfield remarked on the subject of emigration that the Labour Party had always been suspicious of all forms of emigration that disintegrated the home. They were prepared to consider any emigration policy which emigrated the family and not merely an able bodied man. The Labour Ministry was endeavouring to deal with unemployed child workers. On the same occasion she indicated her interpretation of Labour aims when she said: "Some people imagined that Labour was dull and drab, associated with mean streets, old boots, and shabby clothes, and they were inclined to think that that wm all that Labour meant- that all Labour wanted was new boots, better clothes and more to eat. True, Labour wanted all those things, but Labour was interpreted more truly when she said that it hungered far more for the things of the mind and soul. It wanted all those God-given gifta to man in art and science. Labour realised that side by side with the mass movement they must have the growth of individuality, and there was no political party in the country’ that thought so much about personal character and about individuality as the Labour Party. The Labour Party had dignified the word labour as it had never been dignified before.—Lyttelton Times correspondent.