Only Woman in Cabinet

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 468, 25 September 1928, Page 4

Only Woman in Cabinet

Honourable Irene Parlby

'Triumph in Canada

The Hon. Irene Parlby, who has for the past seven years been a member of the Alberta Government, is the first and only woman Cabinet Minister in the British Empire. Mrs. Parlby Iras been closely associated with the development of the Prairie since she arrived there 32 years ago. Daughter of Colonel Marriott, R.E., of the Indian Army, she was born in London 50 years ago, during a holiday her parents were spending in Englandfl. “I was away from home on furlough when I was born,” she remarked in a public address recently. As an infant she went to India, and from early childhood was educated in England and on the Continent. When her father retired from the Army, she studied music and painting abroad. An invitation to stay with friends who were ranching in Alberta brought her to Canada in 1896. There she met and married Mr. Walter Parlby, a young Cambridge graduate, who had homesteaded on the Prairie. Fifty miles from the railway, surrounded by foreigners, Mrs. Parlby shared all

the early trials of the farmer’s wife before the coming of the railroad. When tlie wheatgrowers began to see the advantages of co-operation, and the United Farmers’ Association of Alberta was formed, it fell to Mrs. Parlby to organise the Women’s Auxiliary of that movement. When the first women’s club was formed she wrote a letter to the London “Spectator” asking for gifts of reading matter. Supplies of literature came from South America, South Africa, and from all parts of the Empire—enough to furnish libraries for a score ot clubs. Mrs. Parlby was first president cf the United Fartn Women of Alberta. After four years of hard work, she set the organisation on its feet, and retired to the comfort of her music and books and flowers. Farmers’ Nominee Her respite was short-lived, however, for a request came for Mrs. Parlby to accept the United Farmers’

Association nomination. She accepted, and was elected to Parliament with a big majority, which was greatly increased at the next election, four years later. She was taken into the Government at her first election in 1922, and her administration has given widespread satisfaction. Henry Wise Wood, president of the Alberta Wheat Pool, who is known as the “uncrowned king of Alberta,” pays a high tribute to Mrs. Parlby. “She has been true,” he says, “to all the highest ideals of the farmers' movement. I think her understanding of these ideals has been, and is, perfect. f : The Premier and members of the Legislature think she has been a com servative power for good in the Government of Alberta. She does not let her emotions run away with her. She has an uncompromising sense of justice, and has the quality of recognising potential attributes in others. It was Mrs. Parlby who nominated Mrs. garet Dunn as her successor in leadiny the farm women of Alberta. "She is an inspiration to the women of the Prairie,” said that lady. Jj “Just as the women never hesitated to follow their husbands into the wilderness,” said Mrs. Parlby, r ®’ cently, “so they have borne their P art in the new organisation for their mutual benefit.”