The Country-Women's Corner

Otago Witness, Issue 4028, 26 May 1931, Page 15

The Country-Women's Corner

By

Jean

CHOICE OF OCCUPATIONS FOR GIRLS. lI.—MUSIC TEACHING. (Continued from May 12.) It is impossible through the medium of bare print to convey the pleasure and interest which the visiting teacher’s address gave to her audience. But as there are many girls possessed of musical talent and others possibly not so highly gifted, but who have learned to play and could, if need be, make a good living by teachin" music, in order to encourage such girls to keep up musical study and regular practice, I am giving tile rest of the address::—

“ It was on just such an afternoon as this, with thick fog up to the windows and a blazing fire of big logs, that I had the pleasure of addressing a meeting of the Farmers’ Union in Old England. I had accompanied a friend on a trip Home. She was on her way to the International Federation of Women’s Institutes, and when passing through one of the counties we stayed the night at a manor farm house. There was a Farmers’ Union ball coming off in the ballroom of the village inn, and a number of landlords and tenant farmers came one afternoon to make arrangements for the coming celebration. We British people carry our institutions and prejudices with us. In certain counties in England I was amused to see much the same attitude of mind shown towards rural organisations as I had noted in other parts of the English-speaking world, organisations similar to the Farmers’ Unions and Farmers’ Institutes ‘ marching ’ and operating in the same town and neighbourhood. Our English friends were anxious to hear of the doings of farm people overseas, and, as my friend was an eloquent speaker, she gave them a short talk on the work of. the Canadian women’s farm organisations. Thanks to my friend’s influence, I saw a good deal of the activities of the English Rural Institutes and Farmers’ Unions. One very pleasing feature was the revival- of the old English folk songs and dances. I shall now continue my address. I don’t know if you will find it as interesting or of as much value as the talk about ‘ The Governor's Cow,’ but as music is one of our chief means of recreation and refinement, I am always anxious to encourage those who may wish to study and gain proficiency in music teaching. *• Though I had now attained a good standing as a teacher, and, as I bad remarked before, was earning a good income, I found that the actual time spent in teaching was not all that was required of me. A class must be taught confidence, and therefore must be trained to perform in public. I had to prepare my pupils for a recital every year, and they liked it, although there were always some who lost their courage at the last moment. I- always had to be prepared to make the fourth in a quartet, or a second in a duet. Sometimes I had four pianos, with four pupils using all pianos with two at each. Then three with three at each. I always had two or three violin and piano selections, and have had as many as seven violins. Of course, there were.vocal solos with violin obbligato to fill the concert programme. “ I shall never forget my horror on one occasion, when one of my girls became so nervous that she took no notice of the accompaniment and sang all the waj through in a different key. Another stood up to play a violin solo without tightening her bow, and the result was —nothing. Occurrences like these were very embarrassing, both to myself and the pupil at the time, but it showed us where we were weak and what we must guard against in future. “ Of course, these recitals incurred considerable expense. My studio was not large enough, so I had to rent one for the evening. This, with the expense of renting, moving, and tuning pianos, often ran as high as six pounds. But we always had a good attendance.. The children sold the tickets, and each year had a good surplus. With one exception, I gave this money to the ministers of the town to use for the poor; the other year it went into the fund for the old folks’ home. This meant a good deal of work for the class as well as myself, and we all enjoyed it. “ Choir work involves a great deal of

pleasure as well as work. It was through my connection with the choir that I got most of my recreation. We were entertained frequently or invited out to do entertaining, and we usually got a good deal of fun out of either. Sometimes the fun was at our expense. In conclusion, I would advise every girl to stick to her music, keeping up regular practice and gleaning all chances of information from published lectures and musical magazines. In musical teaching you may not attain riches, but with a moderate amount of work and study you can reach a position of comparative comfort, and, above all, have the encouragement which conies from ‘doing things.’ There is the success which conies from small accomplishments, which tells once more, I suppose, the parable of the talents, and one realises, 'every year, that, in order

to make a success of teaching, one must go on learning.” ¥ ¥ ¥ DOMINION BOOK CLUB. Only those who have been actively engaged in the work of the Dominion Book Club (which takes the place of a circulating library with many outback settlers), have any idea of the pleasure and comfort it brings to many who would otherwise be without new reading matter Most branches of the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union are linked up with the Dominion Book Club, and those who are not should form a committee without delay. One of the books that has been read and re-read by many New Zealanders is “ O Splendid Sorcery,” by James Frances Dwyer, a new author from whom we are hoping to get more charming pictures of Australian farm life. After on e has read this story, there are many things connected ■with Australian people that become clear to us. The people of the island Continent are noted for their love of music. The passing of two of their greatest singers, Madame Melba and Ada Crossley, has brought to the minds of older people the “ gold and silver voices” that once charmed the public. Fortunately for the world, their songs have been preserved. To many in days to come these lovely voices will once more give courage to go forward. There is something in music, something splendid and uplifting, as splendid as the courage of the blind girl in Dwyer’s story: “I have written of the affairs of my aunt, because there was a glamorous mystery connected with everything relating to her. Nothing commonplace or stupid could be associated with her. And the little white feet of Romance walked before her. I think that into the dull world, from time to time, there comes a person like my aunt. A person wh'o makes us think that realism is but the mud on yesterday’s shoes, while Romance is the dream of the soul, and is, un-fortunately-for most of us, always out of reach of our spiritual fingertips. The writer apologises for his youthful romantic fancies, but we are grateful for such books as this, for all that makes life glad and gay. Not all of us can appreciate the grand numbers of our two well loved Australian singers,

but again and again we put on those records that tell of simple joys and children’s laughter, “ Madame, Will You Walk,” “ Sweetes’ Little Fella,” and “My Baby”; the magnificent voice bringing out the mother pride and wonder and joy, the wonderful beauty ot eyes and hands, and the triumphant note in the concluding line: “Ten little toes!” ¥ ¥ ¥ CATS. What would a farm be without the cats? And in the book we have been speaking of, there is the wonderfully wise cat “ Daniel o‘Connel,” that was such a comfort to Monna, he would never get in th e way: “When he saw her moving slowly in his direction, no matter how sunny and warm was the place that he occupied, he would take himself out of her path and sit watching her as she went by.” For the sake of my many farm friends who love cats, I ask leave to quote the concluding paragraph of chapter two. “ This is a small matter to tell of, but I have many memory pictures of the big cat tapping my aunt’s hand in those first weeks of her blindness. He seemed to show his approval of her courage, that she had polished and honed during the days of gathering gloom so that it would cut a path through the years ipf darkness. A courage that brought her fine music from afar, and songs from the ends of the earth* and pictures greater than any painted with little dabs of colour. For my aunt saw life limned with league-long brushes of imagination dipped in passion and love, in gallantry, fine pride, and all the grand colours of the soul that the Almighty gave us.” ¥ ¥ ¥ FARM INSTITUTE NOTES. By Mifawny. We are glad to know that our rural organisations are busy getting in touch with people in the city. Parcels of clothes, fruit, vegetables, eggs, and butter have been dispatched to many needy ones in the large towns. It was a good idea to have delicate children out in the country during the term holidays. The change in the open country has prove! a blessing to these little town dwellers. I believe that in some cases mothers

have also been brought out into the country for a change. Among important home industries that have gone out of practice is breadmaking. In order to send eggs into town mothers have been making “ dough bread ” and yeast buns. There is nothing so nice as a home baked crusty loaf with fresh butter and perhaps clotted cream and apple jelly.