NATIONAL COUNCIL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20281, 16 April 1934, Page 9

NATIONAL COUNCIL.

Conference to be Opened Shortly. INTEREST AROUSED. Considerable interest is being' aroused by the conference of the National Council of Women to be opened in Christchurch on Wednesday. The International Council of Women, to which the New Zealand organisation is attached, was formed some forty years ago, and has since been steadily coming into its own as the recognised expression of women’s thought on the great movements for social betterment throughout the world. Representing, as it does, forty millions of women in forty-ii\e different countries, it has a vast and potent influence to-day. For over thirty years the work of this great international body has been honoured by having as its president Lady Aberdeen, a woman of rare gifts. At intervals of five years great gatherings are held of delegates from the National Councils, the last having been held in Vienna i n 1930. Executive meetings with the members of the standing committees meet annuallv, last year in Stockholm, and this year they will gather at Paris. At Geneva, too, an office of the I.C.W. is kept busy during the annual meetings of the Assembly of the League of Nations. Activities in Dominion.

In New Zealand the first National Council of Women was formed over thirty years ago in Christchurch, and though for a time its activities lapsed, it was later revived, and has now strong branches in nine different i? a f . tbe Dominion. Kach branch nas affiliated to it societies of women, and of men and women, who are in sympathy with its aims. Delegates from each of these bodies attend the monthly meetings, and from them the matters discussed reach a wide public Ihe Christchurch branch is steadily 3^ ore « than twent S societies are affiliated. Associate members, too, share_ in the work, and this class of membership is open to any women inscrfption. ° n paj ment ° f «" annual subConference Programme. of 1 ?!.! 8 .? c . veri y e 2. rs since a conference J!,! I'onal 1 'onal Council of Women was isted Will he w cl ? ure,l a A " those interuuia J ll be welc °med at the service on fcSrX morning, to be followed by meeMnU,’^' ception, and at the business It ls lfooin ch amber of Commerce. 15, j hoped, too, that there will he a on°W>(SiiMrt! nCe at the public meeting wnihn d^ dy , evening, when addresses will be given by Miss B. E. Carnachan Dominion president, on “The I C W and the National Councils"; by Miss Melvßle, Auckland. on “Women Police" by ?nd h rae , r , on “Films and Broadcasting " ‘h h hj. M'ss Kngland, Wellington, on The Nationality of Married Women."