WOMEN OVER THE WORLD

Southland Times, Issue 23734, 4 February 1939, Page 15

WOMEN OVER THE WORLD

San Franciscan Nurse Honoured

Striking tribute was paid to Miss Elizabeth Ashe by the San Francisco County Nurses’ Association recently, when it gave a dinner in her honour in conjunction with medical and social service organizations of the city, states an exchange. Miss Ashe gave up society as a young girl for social service and studied nursing that she might be still better equipped to aid the sick and the poor. The association honoured Miss Ashe by making her its first honorary member, and Dr J. C. Geiger, Public Health Director for San Francisco, offered the city’s tribute by naming her “the one and only consultant in public health nursing for the Plublic Health Department of San Francisco with all the privileges entitled thereto.” In the citation by which this honour was conferred, Miss Ashe was referred to as “a pioneer graduate nurse of San Francisco and the founder of school nursing in the city.” From France was received a message recalling the service to the people of that war-torn nation when Miss Ashe organized the first visiting nursing Paris had ever known, in addition to her army nursing work. It was stated in the message that the visiting nursing and the school nursing services started by Miss Ashe during the war years were being continued in France.

Over England With A

Steam-Roller

Whenever people write to Mrs Oliver Pickett, they address their letters: “Care the Steam-roller .” Then, invariably, they have to telephone, call, or write to an Oxford firm to find out where the steam-roller happens to be. For Mrs Pickett lives in a kind of caravan-trailer fastened to the back of her husband’s touring steamroller.

For 11 years has Mrs Pickett’s home been clanking along at four miles an hour from town to town.

“I’ve only left the trailer twice for any length of time,” she said, “and that was when I had my babies. I’ve now grown to love the' life, always moving on from one road job to another. I don’t think I should like to settle in a house now. Some rollerdrivers’ wives live in a house, and their husbands only come home at weekends, but I should hate that.” Mr Pickett is contented, too. “It’s a grand life,” he said. “And we get about all over the place. I’ve lived in here for 20 years, and have travelled all over England.”

Amazon Tribe In South-West China

In remote Yannan, a province of south-west China, lives the Nashi tribe, whose women “wear the trousers” and a man’s one job in life is looking after babies.

Miss Marie Byles, Sydney solicitor, author, and world traveller, who has returned to Sydney after an absence of six months, came into touch with the tribe on a 1000-mile exploratory trip through little-known parts of Burma and China. She was accompanied by five others —Miss Dora de Beer, of London, Miss Marjorie Jones, and Messrs Frazer Ratcliff, Mick Bowie and Kurt Suter, all of New Zealand. “The men look so sweet playing with the children,” said Miss Byles. “But I realized how truly useless they are. They are small and effeminate. On marriage the Nashi man takes his wife’s name. The women do everything—the field-work, house-work and the breadwinning. I counted 14 big building planks which one woman was carrying on her back without apparent effort.” The main aim of the party was to explore and climb the Sansato mountain group, the most southerly range in Asia. The highest peak was 20,000 feet, but they got no further than 17,000 feet, mainly because of adverse weather.