WOMEN'S WORK IN THE WORLD

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 133, 22 February 1918, Page 2

WOMEN'S WORK IN THE WORLD

FURTHER. TALK BY MISS COLLISSON. Very pleasant and informal was the reception which was held at the Pioneer Club yesterday morning for Miss Collisson and Miss Shaw, who have been paying a brief return visit to Wellington before leaving for Sydney. Lady Stout (president of tho club) received, and there was a good attendance of members.

After tea had been ' handed around Miss Collisson, in response to many requests, further elaborated the subject of her lecture of. the previous evening, "Women mid Work. Tho solidarity of women, she told her hearers, was a vital necessity in the great time of reconstruction that faced the nation. In that reconstruction Women would have a great part to play, and it was only by coming by studying together, that they could gain comprehension aiid sympathy with each other's standpoint in relation to the great problems and duties of life, aiid so bo ready to act together. Everyone present would acknowledge the importance of education, of mental training, and upon the facilities that were afforded for education would depend tho successful solving of the great problems that lay in front of us.

In Australia to-day there was often to be found a wide gap between the classes, a great intolerance, a deep antagonism, and if wo wished to avoid the Catastrophe that had upon Russia through wrong social cortditioris, through ignorance, ivo had to work to tho utmost to overcome these conditions. The working classes of tho World far outnumbered any other,' immense power was in their hands, and they were coming into their own and were fast realising that they were in reality the masters of the world. "If we put our ear to the ground Wo can hear the masses marching," said Miss Collisson, and of that great army of workers fully one-half Were women, women with votes, women who were examining social and industrial conditions, and who were determined to remodel them. It was this great army of workers, men and women, who were going to dominate the world in the time that Was surely coming; and the thing that Was of vital importance was that this democracy should be an educated democracy. Otherwise there would be nothing but anarchy and chaos.

Miss Collisson considered that women who did not think should not be tolerated in any community. Most women could think, however, and to-day there was full scopo for all the powers they possessed. In the Workers' Educational Association women would find an organisation that would open up many opportunities, many fresli fields of energy. It was organised for the

purpose of providing higher education for everyone, men and women alike, and in its classes university graduates and industrial workers met on equal terms, and together studied the economic and social problems which faced society to-day. Not the' least of the many things they learnt by the free interchange of ideas was a wide tolerance and a sympathetic understanding of each other's viewpoint, as well as the great necessity of co-oper-ating'for the good of society at large. Women were beginning to realise that the suffering of ono woman • affected all; that ail underpaid seamstress reacted upon themselves, aiid that no one could live to herself alone. We were indeed our sister's keeper. In concluding, Miss _Collisson_ said that in the woman's gifts, of spirituality and mentality was to be found the promise of healing arid peace for ii weary,'stoinitossed world.

A veto of thanks to Miss Collisson for her interesting and helpful address was proposed by Mrs. A. R. Atkinson, and seconded" by Miss Helyer, the motion being carried with acclamation.