PUBLIC MEETING

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3644, 28 May 1927, Page 3

PUBLIC MEETING

ADDRESS BY MSS KIRK, J.P

In connection with a meeting of the Wellington District Executive of the W.C.T.U., held in Foxton on Thursday afternoon, a public meeting was held in the Methodist Church in the evening, attended by a large and appreciative audience. Miss Oates, district president, occupied the chair, and the speaker Miss Kirk, of Wellington, one of the newly-appointed Justices of the Peace, who told a most interesting story of her eXpel'ienees in the Courts in her position as secretary of the Society Tor the Protection of iWomen and Children. She urged the need of Domestic Courts in which cases of affiliation, maintenance and separation might be heard. It was not right, she said, that women who, through no fault of their own, had to seek for separation orders should be forced to tell the pitiable tale of their sorrows in front of a gaping public gathered out of idle curiosity, and to hear a few “spicy” details. The speaker also told of the Borstal prison for women and girls at Port Ilalswell (Wellington). She explained the difference of treatment between these methods and those of an earlier day, and said that now detention was reformative, and not purely punitive. She also asked the audience to help where possible in securing homes for girls who had come out of these institutions and needed kind and understanding treatment, and good homes. Miss Kirk also related how that in every instance drink was the cause of separation and trouble, and urged her hearers to vote the liquor traffic out of this Dominion as the best means of reducing crime and misery.

On the. motion of the Rev. W. H. Walton, seconded by Mrs Evans, .a hearty vote of thanks was accorded the speaker for her very interesting and educative address.

During the evening much appreciated items were rendered by Mrs Trask and Miss Dorothy Rimmer (pianoforte selections), Mesdames Dowpes and L. Bullard (vocal duet), Mrs Trask and Mr Chrystall (vocal duet). The meeting closed with the Benediction.