ADDRESS TO RUAPEHU FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S INSTITUTES

Wanganui Chronicle, 29 April 1949, Page 9

ADDRESS TO RUAPEHU FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S INSTITUTES

An interesting address on her travels abroad was given oy Mrs L. Horn, of Wellington. Dominion secretary of the New Zealand Women's Institute, when she attended the annual meeting of the Ruapehu Federation. Mrs Horn represented New Zealand at the fifth Congress of World Association of Country Women- held in Amsterdam. The speaker was introduced by Mrs J. R. Dellow, retiring president of the Ruap'ehu Federation. Mrs Horn said that she went to England first and enjoyed a month’s tour of the country, visiting Somerset, where the people were very keen to know all they could about New Zealand. They were deeply grateful for New Zealand parcels. She saw some line examples of basketry in the fenlands and also inspected some wonderful patchwork In Suffolk she went over the ruins of -kn old castle and also saw what they call “The Pig and Whistle” The country abounded with trees, hedges and wild tiow'ers, and she realised the true significance of the song “Trees' She never heard this song without thinking of the lovely trees she had seen in England The speaker went on to relate how she looked over a house that reminded her of St Paul’s Cathedral It had 200 rooms She took a collection of Maori crafts with her overseas and the people were very interested. From Suffolk she went on to Norfolk and inspected the cathedral where the Rt. Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland. formerly Bishop of Wellington, carries on his good work. Mrs Horn described her visit to tne Sandringham estate and told now she saw Queen Mary walking in the grounds. She saw a Shorthorn herd on the estate and also watched pony jumping for the benefit of the children on the estate. Her next move was back to London and then up to Wales. She was joined in Wales by four Canadian delegates and was presented with a Welsh badge with a dragon on it. Rationing was very severe in Wales and she often wondered how tne people lived. Rationing in England was also very drastic- fats in particular being very scarce. There was plenty oi~fish but no fat to cook it in. Housewives were only allowed one ounce of cooking fat per week, one rasher of bacon and lOd worth of meat. Small goods alien as livers and kidneys were unprocurable. “Apart from seeing our sons and, daughters go away, we in New Zealand did not know there was a war on, and it is our duty to send food parcels to our fellow members in Britain,” declared Mrs Horn, who proceeded to relate how she went from England to Holland by air. She had trouble with her passport,’which had expired, and had to pay three more guilders to get it endorsed in Holland. Three guilders was worth 7s 6d in New Zealand money. She was billeted with th’e wife of a judge of the Supreme Court and still corresponded with her. She attended a church service conducted in English and Dutch. Dealing with the conference she attended at a hotel in Amsterdam. Mrs Horn said that 83 constituencies were represented, there being 500 delegates present. The theme was “Peace, and Feeding a Hungry World ” The whole conference was conducted in English, which was the second language m Dutch schools. , “We must try and see everybody s point of view and take a deeper interest in world affairs/’ said Mrs Horn. She added that after the conference several receptions were held and one day she attended a ‘Dutch Day” celebration. There were 7000 people present, of whorfi 4000 were in national costume. She attended a banquet together with 500 other people. She enjoyed a week’s tour of Holland, but never saw a sign of milkwhich all went into export. From Holland Mrs Horn went on to Belgium and France. She wa.> impressed with the building in Brussels, where future needs were taken into consideration. Though Holland and France were heavily rationed, one could buy anything one wanted in Belgium at a most reasonable price. Mrs Horn was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for h'er address.