WOMEN’S DIVISION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 95, 22 April 1944, Page 2

WOMEN’S DIVISION

WANGANUI BRANCH ANNUAL REPORT. The annual report o activities of the Wanganui branch o. the Women’s Division of the rar liters’ Union, showed that much patriotic work had been accomplished during the year. “To all who have suffered bereavement and to all who are passing through times of strain and anxiety owing to war or other conditions, we tender our sincerest sympathy, and we earnestly hope that, the end of the turmoil is not far distant,” said the report. “In knitting woollen garments for the men of the Merchant Navy, in the giving and packing of parcels for our men and women on active service, and other calls of a patriotic nature, members feel that their time has been usefully and interestingly occupied during the last twelve months. A small committee of hospital visitors have paid weekly calls on all lonely patients at the Public Hospital, and our modest gifts of fruit, flowers and home-made jams and a supply of reading matter have been much appreciated. “As part of the Farmers’ Union, the division has a very important part to play in the production and preservation of all foodstuffs, and many of our young women have joined the Land Army and are rendering splendid service, both as assistants and as employers on dairy and on sheep farms, where latent ability is making itself very apparent. “in Britain, in war-ravaged Europe, and in other parts of the world, foodstuffs are in such short supply that all sections of the farming community in New Zealand have undertaken to increase production to the utmost, and members of the W.D.F.U. are bravely and proudly working longer hours (while compulsorily doing without accustomed help in the home owing to the call-up of their daughters in an effort to increase the farm’s output without unduly handicapping their menfolk, whose services may be needed overseas or in specialised work on the home front—and so our motto, “Service, not self,” is justified. To officers and committee and all helpers we give our thanks.”