TRAVELLER RETURNS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21184, 3 November 1938, Page 10

TRAVELLER RETURNS

WOMEN IN CANADA Miss Enid Tolley, who recently returned to New Zealand after a year spent in Winnipeg, Canada, as an exchange teacher, recounted her experiences to members of the Travel Circle in the English-speaking Union in Wellington. Miss Tolley described the various ports at which her ship called en route to Canada. She travelled by the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rockies, over the Selkirk Range, and up the Frazer Canyon. Winnipeg, the speaker said, was a fiat prairie town. The population of the city proper was 22,300, and comprised groups of peoples of many nationalities. The colour problem in the city was acute, each race having maintained the customs and individuality of its own land. Some schools in the “foreign” settlements were provided with teachers of their own nationality, but in many cases Englishspeaking teachers were provided, and in such cases their task was a difficult one. Winnipeg, the heart of all the prairie lands, was naturally the main exporting centre, and the town contained the greatest railway marshalling yards in the world. Miss Tolly explained the Canadian education system, which, she said, in her opinion, was not on a par with that of New Zealand. Schools received only a small subsidy from the Federal Government, each district being taxed separately by a select governing board in order to maintain its own education centre. In poor districts teachers were often Inadequately paid and seemed to continue their profession for the love of it. Club Life Important Club life, Miss Tolley explained, was a very important feature of Canadian life. Women’s clubs were numerous, and in almost every case, very flourishing. Many maintained Empire study groups, taking a special interest in young aliens whose parents were naturalised Canadian citizens but who had no conception of the Empire to which they belonged. The Imperial Order of the Daughters of the British Empire was a large organisation, involving many thousands of women. It had much in common with the Victoria League, and, in addition to doing social work, was very active in philanthropy. Dinner parties were a feature of club life, and in church life also. “Turkey" dinners were particularly popular, and often 400 people sat down to such a meal at once. The ladles auxiliaries provided the vegetables when such a function was held for charity, taking the food already cooked, and piping hot, from their own homes to the meeting-place In cars. The fowl was provided by special caterers. Counter-bar lunches were universal, Miss Tolley said. The people simply lined up and ate their toasted sandwiches, pies, doughnuts, etc., at the special bars. Coffee was the national drink. Counter-bars were provided in many of the stores, and were always crowded.