HOME LIFE.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 January 1928, Page 4

HOME LIFE.

LADY ALICE FERGUSSON’S VIEWS

DUNEDIN, Jan. 13. “ This is an age when things regarding the home and. home life have become unsettled in many ways. It is partly owing to the enormous upheaval of the Great War, but it had begun a little before that. There have been very quick and sudden changes and undreamed of development in the liberty and freedom among young people. Many women need to do a lot of clear thinking to readjust their principles. So much is criticised to-day that used to he taken for granted. All round us old convictions and ideas have been shaken and things have got to be taken on a different plane. It is surely eoniinonsonse to gain what help we can lie joining others who are seeking guidance.” Lady Alice Kergusson, who addressed the League of .Mothers this afternoon, described with these words one of the prineipl objects of the organisation that slie is working to strengthen. When in Dunedin sixteen months ago. she addressed a gathering of women and was instrumental in having I.ranches of the League formed. Her address was for the benefit of new and intending members of what is now a flourishing centre of the League.

In Ilej^ilining her address Lady Alice Kergussnn said that her visit to Dunedin, though short, was well worth while, especially as she had been enabled to meet those interested in the .League of Mothers, a society in which she took a very real and deep interest. Although in a way she had been instrumental in its organisation in Xew Zealand, it owed its existence to the Mothers’ Union, which had been going on for a long time. It was because she had seen the benefits of the Mothers’ Union and had been herself a member of the Scottish Mothers’ Union, that she had turned her attention to the

formation of the League. In discussing the rules of the League Lady Alice said that the rule instructing them to teach their children obedience ami self-control was very important, because it was a bulwark against Ihe faddist. A Inc was heard to-day about the need for a child’s self-devel-opment—that she should be allowed to develop tier own personality, and so forth. In her opinion the crank and toe faddist might carry this doctrine too far. Another rule dealt with the necessity for parental control over the literature and amusements of children. '1 his was of tremendous importance. She knew that most mothers were busy people, and could not always be running after their older children, but League mothers should know where their children were, and should not send them to the pictures without knowing tiie type of film that was being shown.