HOME SCIENCE LECTURES.

Wairarapa Age, 10 March 1934, Page 3

HOME SCIENCE LECTURES.

MISS VIOLET MACMILLAN’S VISIT.

In a newsletter just issued,- Miss Violet Macmillan, Sarah Anne Rhodes Fellow in Home Science, gives some interesting particulars of the lecturing tour in the Wairarapa which opened at the beginning of this month. “The visit,” Miss Macmillan states, “commenced on Thursday, March 1, and after arriving safely with car and equipment in time for lunch ■Tolly’s, I held my first meeting a ough in the Presbyterian •some hundred women attended i gave their attention to the consideration of the food needs of the human being. In this lecture it is explained how the body requires certain foods for the growth of bone, the growth of muscle, the supply of fuel to provide heat and energy, for regulation, and for protection from disease. Charts were used to show which foods supply these essential constituents, and emphasis was placed on the extreme value of a balanced diet, containing adequate quantities of all the groups of foodstuffs, in making well-built bodies, vigorous constitutions and mental and physical vigour. “Reminder” charts were sold to members. Following on this lecture and afternoon tea, a short lecture on the principles and methods of food preservation, particularly in regard to preserving meat and vegetables, was given. “On Friday morning there was a study group class to learn about dishes which should be used in the family diet to prevent goitre and anaemia. Recipes for liver, spinach, and egg dishes were supplied as being recommended in anaemia preventing or curing treatment, whilst iodised salt, the greater use of’vegetables, the weekly consumption of fish, and the preparation of dishes containing Irish Moss were advocated as being valuable in preventing goitre. “In the afternoon a meeting was arranged by the Pihautea W.D.F.TT. Here the subject was the foreign women’s organisations I had studied abroad, —the American Fam Home, Bureau, the Canadian and British Women’s Institutes, the Dutch and Scandinavian House-mothers Associations, the Finnish Marthas, and the Australian Country Women’s Associations.”

Miss Macmillan’s visit to the Wairarapa is to last for nearly two months. “The subjects for lectures,” she stated, “deal with some of the most important aspects of that complicated and varied profession—homemaking, and are intended to assist in the planning and preparation of right diets; the arranging, equipping, decorating and running of the home; the choice and construction of appropriate and tasteful garments, the study of personal efficiency and the advantageous use of leisure. This means that there are now available, through the correspondence box system or by my personal visits, lectures on such subjects as ‘What a child should eat and why,’ Milk, and its Value,’ ‘The A.B.C. of Nutrition,’ ‘N.Z. Teeth,’ ‘Goitre in N.Z.’ and many more on food subjects; with ‘Children’s Dressmaking,’ ‘Altering, and Fitting Patterns,’ ‘Choice of Materials,’ and others on the clothing side; ‘Kitchen Planning,’ ‘Repairs and Renovations,’ ‘lnterior Decoration,’ dealing with the home, and various craft subjects such as ‘Quilting,’ ‘Embroidery,’ ‘Dyeing,’ ‘Gardening,’ for profitable leisure hours.”