PIONEER CLUB AT HOME

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 109, 1 February 1919, Page 4

PIONEER CLUB AT HOME

A very pleasant gathering took place at the rooms of the P:ov.«er Club yesterday afternoon,,when numbers were given an opportunity of meeting Mrs. Rhodes, of Seattle, who is paying a short visit to New Zealand. The Toome ■ *rero prettily, decorated with flowers and foliage, noticeably a bowl of lovely , pink hyderangeas. In the aba-ace of the prosiStout, Mrs. A. R. Atkinson and Miss Kane, vice-prcsidents, .received. Mrs. Rhodes gav.o a short, informal resume of the principal activities to which tho women of Washington (W.) are engaged; what they have accomplished, and what they aro striving for. Some of the ground lias already been covered in tho report of a short interview with Mrs. Rhodes earlier in the wosk. The fundoroentel principle winch she stressed ad tho foundation'of all accomplishment TffA "organise an .again organise." She pointed out that to gain any reform the jjegislature had to be invoked, that .women have the numbers, the hearts and the bi'ft.ns to scoure anything "they really wished, if they only agrosd not to be too critical of each other—and to unite in some recognised centre of activity. In Washington State all officers of the law, from Judges down, aro fleeted by popular vote. There is a woman Judge, and there are women police. The work of the latter is mostly of such a nature that they resolved thehiselves into a League of Prevention. But as they wear no distinctive badge on their plain navy costumes, it is possible for children and girls, arrested for tho first time, and for trifling offences, to be quietly taken to the special courts provided for such cases without any advertisement of the'fact. Finally Mrs. Rhodes impressed upon her hearers that women must take a serious part in reconstruction after the war. She emphasised the need that women who are well off-should realise that they have a duty to perform for those who are less fortunate, and' above all, for the little helpless children. Miss Phoebe Myers proposed a hearty voto of thanks to the sneaker, which was carried by acclamation.