MISS B. E. BAUGHAN

Ladies' Mirror, Volume I, Issue 4, 2 October 1922, Page 16

MISS B. E. BAUGHAN

Poetess, Writer and Social Worker

with the gift of winning the affectionate regard of all with whom she comes in contact, whether literary people of culture, or those less favoured in their education and environment, Miss Baughan occupies a unique position in the Dominion as a woman writer of note, and a social worker of tireless energy and effectiveness. She came to the Dominion some years ago in search of health, and, finding New Zealand and New Zealanders congenial, decided to make this country her headquarters.

A lover of the beautiful in nature, she built herself a hill-top house at Clifton, a seaside suburb of Christchurch, whence she looks down on what she herself, says is “the most glorious seashore view she has ever seen.” It was on a wonderful day of blue and gold that the writer threaded her way up the hillside studded with colour-full gardens, in which nestle the artistic homes that give Clifton its unique charm. The road zigzagged through luxuriant beds of orange gazenias and vividly brilliant iceplants, yellow, red, cerise, and behind one was the green and indigo of the Pacific sweeping past the Sumner Estuary, and on to the Forty Mile Beach forming a scene of rare and unforgettable beauty. Miss Baughan was at home, and at her desk, hut quite ready to grant a request for some details of her busy life. As a poetess and thinker, she finds her fellow-creatures an engrossing study. To it she brings a generous sympathy, and this has of late led her to devote herself to a most helpful form of social work. As she speaks, the listener realises that this slender alert woman, so quick in word and thought, so alive with sparkling energy, has a personality of rare magnetic power. PORN near London, she was edu--L cated at Brighton High School, and afterwards at Holloway College, graduating B.A. of London University in 1892.

“After that,” she said. “I did some settlement work in Shoreditch slums under a charity organisation. Then I taught Greek to Adeline, Duchess of Bedford. In 1900 I came to New Zealand, and not long afterwards went for a trip round the Islands, also to South Africa, and as far north as the Zambesi Falls. Later, the Yosemite Valley and California called to me, and I spent a wonderful time there. Since then I have been to India, and twice back to England. “Oh, yes. I infinitely prefer New Zealand to any other place, and that is why I live here. Besides, I find there is material in abundance ready to my hand.” Before leaving England the first time she had published one book of poems—“Verses”— 1898 ; “Reuben, and Other Poems” followed in .1903. Most of these had appeared in The Speaker, The Spectator, The Author and The Literary World, and were welcomed by cultured readers as poetry of a high order, while critics with one accord mistook it for a man’s work, on account of its strength, lyrical freshness, and its wide range of subjects. Since then, in 1908, she published “Shingle Short,” and in the same year “The Finest Walk in the World.” “Brown Bread” appeared in 1912, and since then she has written booklets of descriptive sketches, which have been collected into “Studies in New Zealand Scenery.” At present she is busy preparing another volume of verse for the press. She nursed through the influenza epidemic, and was instrumental in helping to save many lives. During the last seven years she has been a close student of Indian thought, as enunciated in the Vedantic philosophy, and feels that a rapprochement between East and West is imminent and most desirable. T ATTERLY Miss Baughan has - Li been drawn by the breadth of her sympathies into prison work. As an official visitor and probation officer in connection with the Prisons Department. she is immensely interested in the psychological side of our delinquents. On this topic she grew quite eloquent, and her point of view is both novel and optimistic. “The chief part of my work is character-building, by means of correspondence,” she said. “I find this so absorbingly interesting and encouraging, that I wish that more women of years, experience, leisure, education and sympathy would take it up. I am convinced that the large majority of our delinquents arc really immature morally —not degenerate. They have been stunted in their inner development, whether emotional, reflective, or imaginative. We have in them really the backward children of our class, rather than the deliberately evil-minded enemies of society.” “How, then, would you deal with them?” was asked. “What is needed,” was her reply, “is individual shepherding of each black sheep—individual coaching of each moral dunce or dullard. I am convinced that this would work wonders. It can all be done so inexpensively, so quietly, if only women of the right kind would take it up. “My own ‘class’ numbers about fifty, irrespective of those on the

spot. I have boys, girls, men, women, drunkards, murderers, thieves and forgers, and can honestly say that I find good in them all. They are so ready to respond to an attempt at understanding rather than condemning, that I am convinced this is a hopeful method. They write to me as ‘Friend,’ and I am glad and proud of the title.”

At present Miss Baughan is giving nearly all her time to prison work. She lives quietly, and does not care for smart society. To help the helpless, to develop the germ of good in those of her fellow-creatures who have lost their way in —unselfish service; in shortis the keynote of her life.

Meantime she is everlastingly busy, is never lonely, and always happy.