MISS DOVE'S RETIREMENT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 778, 30 March 1910, Page 3

MISS DOVE'S RETIREMENT.

In view of the appointment of a New Zealand lady as headmistress of the famous Wycombe Abbey Girls' School, special 'interest attaches to the interview with Miss Dove, tho retiring headmistress, which is published in an English paper. In the approaching retirement of Miss Dove (says the "Daily News'') tho movement for the more thorough education of girls loses one of its strongest leaders. , Miss Dove's name is perhaps freshest in tho public memory as the heroine < the recent municipal squabble 'here, when slid was nominated for tho Mayoralty of the town, but local prejudice against the idea of a lady Mayor proved too great for her election. Quite apart from this, however, Miss Dove has achieved a wide reputation as an educational reformer, and countless parents have had reason to be glad that they entrusted the training of their daughters to her care. ,

Fifteen years ago, Wycombe Abbey— then a mansion belonging to tho Carrington family—was converted .' into a girls' boarding school, and Miss Dove was placed at its head. It started ■with thirty boarders, and then gradually developed until now the number has reached nearly three hundred. Not only did its fame spread throughout tho country; but it reached the colonies, with tlio result that people sent .their girls'to the school from Canada; Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In. a chat with the interviewer, Miss Dove spoke, of her experiences at the school. She has none of the characteristics which one usually associates with the. head.of a girls' school. In place of the eagle eye and the stern, unbending manner, one finds the personification'"of good humour arid' kihdlv feeling, albeit the keen grey eyes show that their owner can be firm if necessity demands it; ': : ■ ;'■■ "Yes," said Miss Dove, in answer fej a question, "it is true that I am relinquishing the..reins of government here. After 2S, years' work as a headmistress I; think it is time I should have a-rest. - Before I came here I was for many years headmistress of St. Leonard's School at St. 'Andrew's, ill Fifeshire, and it. was there , that I inaugurated tho system which I have pursued here. It has always been my conviction that. girls should he brought up to have some definite object in life. I think the . process vaguely . described as ".'finishing'' a girl's education - too often means that she is merely trained in good manners and'to bo able to tako her pat-t in conversation, while of, actual learning the amount she gains is comparatively small. ,

a milios where the number of girls is only one or. two this education may be, perhaps, sufficient, for those girls. are generally wanted in their 'homes. < But where there are three or four girls they should bo brought up to some, professional work, for as a rulo . they ■ are" perfectly capable of do-* wg-good work. I also think that-it is' only by ; manual labour'that the full intelligence is developed, and' our girls here, though ,they/are all of the middle class or upper middle cla'sfe,. have / to learn some kind of manual work, such as bookbinding or carpentering." Miss Dove strongly-believes in the granting of the Parliamentary franchise' to women! ; She is. a member of the •AVycp'mbe.;Town Council,, and takes an' active part; in the work, of the Education Committee of that body. of • Miss-'; Dove's beliefs .is. that • if- -the : . mistress of a • boarding-school-takes-charge of h-' girl she should see the contract through whether the girl is well or ill, and. to this *f: ue fact that "Wycombe Abbey .is probably the only institution, in tlie country whicli pos- : sesses'.'a 'hospital complet-e in 'every detail. . ... .. ;

Miss Dove's aim as ,a schoolmistress lias been- to 'make Wycombe. Abbey, a regular girls' Eton, and' sho Has s'undoubtedly- succeeded: " 'At Girton 'College, Cambridge, which she herself was one of the first to enter at it 3 opening, many of her .pupils have done remarkably well. ■ :