CONFERENCE OF WOMEN WORKERS IN LEEDS.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 41, 6 January 1894, Page 3

CONFERENCE OF WOMEN WORKERS IN LEEDS.

(Bv Aukoba.)

An interesting- g-athering- of women workers from all parts of the Kingdom was lately opened in Leeds. This is the fourth annual conference that has taken place under the auspices of the Central Council of women workers, of which the Duchess of Bedford is president, and I was glad to hare the opportunity of attending their openingmeeting. The Albert Hall is utilised for the purposes of the Conference, which is to last for five days. With the aid of handsome furniture, pretty art fabrics, and other decorations the crypt has been converted into a comfortable retiring room, and other apartments of the building are used as dining rooms and offices for the secretaries, stewards and others. The opening meeting was presided over hy Mrs Boyd-Carpenter, and'among those present were Lady Latham, Lady Henry Somerset, Lady Frederick Cavendish, The Hon. Emily Kennaird, Mrs Verney (niece of Florence Nightingale) and a host of others. Mrs BoydCarpenter. set the Conference going hy,a very bright, racy speech. She believed that woman had the capacity dor the highest efforts of philanthropy. The proof of the capacity of women might he found in the fact that the women of New Zealand were now enjoying the full pleasure and advantage of the franchise. But from earliest ages woman had shown capacity to till any post —from the time that Hypatia and the daughter of Pythagoras lectured in the schools of philosophy down to that of Mrs Barrett Browning and her compeers. Then, as at the present day, women swayed the world. Amongst the rulers of the earth they were not behindhand —they had the Queen of the East, and the Queen of the West, the Queen of the past, and the Queen of the present, the Queen of Sheba and our own Gracious Majesty. T heir power, if they only knew it, was immense. Their jiosition in the sphere of influence through the home upon public and private life was no chimera, but a very real thing, and even now in our modern mythology we asked -—“What will Mrs Grundy say r 1” She closed her remarks by urging the ladies present to go forward hopefully and earnestly as workers for Christ, believing that His blessing would not fail them.

Papers were then read on various pliascs of Christian work and workers Miss Maria Trench, author of “ The Life of Father Lowder,” read a paper relating to “Anglican Sisterhoods.” She was followed by Miss Garble, in a, well-thought-out paper on “ The Training’ of Christian Workers by the Church Army.” Mrs H. Selfe Leonard read the third paper on “ The Training of Christian Workers by the Bible and Domestic Mission.” Lady 'Frederick Cavendish gave a short account of the Parochial WhnneAs Mission Association, in which she was much interested. Mrs Sheldon Amos referred to the work, done by the Women’s Branch of the Univesity Settlement in South London, and declared that if the work was to be done properly it was not advisable to be subject to a vicar, for a woman must know ber own work better, than any man ! The paper which was perhaps listened

to with most interest was one written by Florence Nightingale. The dear old lady was too feeble to come herself and read what she had written, but she sent a good substitute in the person of her niece, Mrs Frederick Verney. The subject of the paper was “ Health Teaching in Villages.” She demonstrated the fact how people suffered diseases and death through sheer ignorance. Health missioners should be thoroughly trained to teach cottage mothers. There should he no patronising, “ talking down,” or “ prying about,” but real downright sympathy between the teacher and the taught. A paper contributed hy Dr C. Lloyd Tucker was read. He said that successful treatment of drunkenness should aim at strengthening the will power and removing- the mox-bid craving. He had been using hypnotism a good deal during the last five years as a curative agent, and he found that in many cases of chronic drunkenness it was strikingly successful. Lady Henry Somerset, who was greeted with loud and prolonged applause, read a most interesting paper, in the course of which she remarked that the association of alcoholic beverages with thoughts of hospitality, kindness, and good-will, had invested it with a dignity not its own, and made mankind in general unwilling to forego its use. In olden times alcohol found its place chiefly in the camp, hut later on civilisation introduced it into the courts and at the civic banquet. Opium, morphia, chloroform and cocaine had all their places in the medical pharmacopoeia, but they were dangerous drugs, and we should no more think of trifling with these powerful agents by placing them in the people’s hands, than we should think of presenting our children with firearms or dynamite. It was admitted that the misery caused by war, pestilence and famine, all in one, was not to-day as great as the misery caused by alcoholic beverages ; it was admitted that nothing had imbued the barbarous tribes and Oriental countries with a distrust of Christianity so deep as the fact that Christian nations bad fastened upon them the curse of drink. We spent in the United Kingdom nearly twice as much for intoxicating liquors as for bread, and twice as much upon drink as upon linen, cotton, and woollen goods. We spent little less than the entire rent roll of ail the farms and all the houses in the United Kingdom on drink. Then its influence upon" immorality and vice was touched upon by Lady Henry Somerset. It was remarked that one great feature in women’s work in temperance was the absence of vituperative attacks upon the nonabstainer and the publican. The influence of the ballot-box in the near future promised to be to the true temperance women the most hopeful feature of our time. As these meetings are to be continued until Frida}-, I shall be able to give you some further account in my next sketch.