WOMEN'S WORK STANDS ALONGSIDE THAT OF MEN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 101, 15 May 1937, Page 18

WOMEN'S WORK STANDS ALONGSIDE THAT OF MEN

"In extending a most cordial welcome to you all, I think it was a particularly happy thotiglit' that prompted the Mayor and councillors to arrange this party for us, and we accept it as a gesture of their appreciation and recognition of the work of our 'women in the civic and social life of Hastings during the past 50 years," said the Mayoress, Mrs G. A. Maddison, at theWomen's Jubilee Party yesterday.. "It Was Lord Tennyson who summed up the relationshap between man and wonaan, when he said: — Man for the field • And woman for the hearth ; Man for the sjvord, And for the needle she: Man with a head And woman with a heart ; Man .to command And .woman to obey. "But even Tennyson eould make mistakes, and this' is one of them. "The modern w?rld has gone forward from the days when women had to play- a purely passive part in affairs — and doubtless Tennyson would be very uncomfortablo -if he could be present On su'ch ?tn occasion as this, when we assemble to make acknowledgment of the work that has been done in this coxnmunity by women ■ not on the hearth and with the needle only, but in the midst of the rush and turmoil of the outside world that men have so long regarded as their own province, "The roll call of the great women of the world wi.ll stand repetition alongside the greatest chronicles of the deeds that men have done. In social service, in war, in business, in sport, in aviation, in politics, and in many other departments of life, women have played their part in a mantter that would have been regarded as impossible in forjner days. "One point I would ljke to make clear is that even the things that men have accomplished have owed much to the help of the womenfolk; and the council ,have given expression to that appreciation and recognition by arranging this afternoon' s party. "If this or any other community is to prosper and march on/ard as it should, there must necessarily be cooperation and: true friendship betweep inen and .womdn. There are things that each can do, but there are things that the other cannot do. . "In referring to past Mayoresses, 1 know -and appreciate the noble part each one of you has played in the building of Hastings, and- 1 am sorry that every Mayoress since 1886 could not have been spared to be with us on this occasion. We are full of graiitude for the service which each one of you ladies, and the organizations you represent,- have rendered in the building up of our town, of which we are all so proud. I hope that this spirit of co-operation .will ever remain. "I have therefor© a very sincere Ipieasure in welcoming the representabives of various women' s activities, both past and present, here to day ;• and I think we, can look backward with prid'e upon the 50 years of steady but undivided progress of our town, and we can look to the future .with hope and optimism.'?