SHE FIGHTS FOR HER WORK

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 34, 16 February 1940, Page 42

SHE FIGHTS FOR HER WORK

Books For The Outback

EET Mrs. Rowlatt, of Canterbury. M Short, greying hair under her felt hat, brown eyes, wise and warm behind dark-rimmed. glasses, a sensible tailored suit, and a "Well-let’s start, shall we?" mariner. "She has just returned from Austiilia, and she ‘has things to say about heat waves and radio. But we know something already, so we start asking questions. ' "What put the idea into your head to start a travelling library for rural schools down in Canterbury? "Why — the children. hadn’t any books! To read, I mean. Lesson books and mother’s pattern journal and an odd comic cuts! A child must have more than that — it’s so important!" "Yes — it’s important all right," I agreed, "But how did it all begin?" "Oh, well, of course — it wasn’t me. It was about six of us — after hearing Miss Hollow, of Rangiora High School, speak about the great need of culture for the outback. We. just made up our minds to do it." "Not so easy," I demurred. "How?" "Oh — you mean money. We canvassed for it. And when we got £200 we startedwith 300 books." "Begged, borrowed, and stolen?" She smiled. "Nearly," she said. "That was four years ago. Now we’ve a £620 Government grant to carry on and 7,000 books." "How do you get them to their destination?" "At first, almost entirely by voluntary carriage. On lorries, buses, everything. Now a quarter rate concession. on the railways. The schools receive so many books per month. The children, for a sub. of 2/-, may read as many as they can in the time. Then they are returned and a fresh batch is issued." Good work — good woman. Maybe there’s a hope yet that we'll breed minds to match our bodies. * s Found she’d gone for a long walk too -- "just to look around." Took six weeks — alone — from Auckland to the Far North, beyond: Kaitaia — with sleeping bag and tucker. Sonie of the Maori villages that were off the beaten track a bit knew serious poverty and disease.

Two and a-half days on 90-Mile Beachdidn’t meet a soul. "Lonely? No! I thought out all the things I don’t ordinarily get time for. It’s friendscontacts — travel — life — that makes it possible to stand up to solitude." " And. books can be all these?" "Yes! Well. — nearly. A good second best. That’s why we find neglect, lethargy, despondency in the remote parts of New Zealand -of any country. It’s the same in Australia. Nothing for the mind to feed on. It’s starvation. And it’s serious." I thought of long journeys I have taken by rail through that perishing-hot continentof the groups of women waiting hours by the rails to grab the books and magazines we might throw them — their shouts of delight — their waving arms as we sped past into the distance. ... "I know," I said. "Well, did you get the full blast of Sydney’s summer over there?" I asked. "I did. But Sydney’s not the worst. It’s inland --.and the bush fires. You know that everywhere there are ‘travellers’ fireplaces’ set up, and not a day passes without the national warning against carelessness sounding over the air. "Yet, in one case, three women fired thousands of acres of grass. Two hundred volunteers were fighting day and night along a 30-mile front. Forest, fences, houses — everything went." "The National Forest — Bulli Pass — was black when I passed through. Every season sees the bush things — the little native koala bear, for instance, dwindling." "Did you talk on the Other side?" "Yes, I did," said Mrs. Rowlatt. "I talked about our library scheme over here, and they were very much interested." " What did you think of their women’s programmes?" " Better than ours. The women’s voices are very poor — the men are picked and rather English. But the programmes are much more varied and interesting and spread over the day. | j "For instance, any Monday there's: a women’s session at 10.20, carrying on to a special talk at 11.20. " At 2:30 it’s special to country women, preceded by another talk at 1.45.

(Continued from opposite page) "Then at 6.45 there’s women’s sport — and it’s well worth listening-in to. "Australia allows women more liberty — liberty of subject. . "There is much reai discussion — with opinions subscribed from outside. "There is a ‘What Shall We Read?’ talk which is by no means reviews, but books discussed very openly. "There’s a ‘Who’s to Blame?’ session which gets at public taste and retailers, writers, and publish. ing houses." "Never censors?" I interrupted. Mrs. Row latt laughed. ‘If there is a censorship I was not aware of it." * * * "What surprised and deighted me was that in a ‘Speaking Personally’ session, women were even allowed to seek a ittle enlightenment on the business of war." "How did they go about it?" "Well, they discussed it — quite freely and intelligently. I jotted down some of the points: ‘What blame lay with the Versailles Treaty?’; ‘What blame with markets and social condioT ee a ge "Were any decisions arrived at?" "Well-yes, in a way. There was a kind of agreement that the people of a country should lave the right to decide whether

or not they would participate; that all the old petty spites and hatreds of 1918 — changing of place names that had been German -- and that sort of thing — was shameful and disgusting; that Britain, if she wins the war, must clean up her house at home." "You mean poverty and unemployment?" "Yes — and employment, too, that is as stark and desperate. It is not only in England. It is in Australia." * * * When are women going to think, and speak, Mrs. Rowlatt wanted to know, for themselves in our small country? : We're not apathetic, really. We bother our heads about a lot of things — in a muddly kind of way. But we don’t do anything.

Sometimes we confide our distress. and ignorance to a complete stranger in sad little letters. Mrs. Rowlatt gets them. They say: "Please, why did Germany invade: Poland?" "What was the Versailles Treaty?" "What really happened at Munich?" They say: "Can you please enlighten us on-the cause-of ‘the Wartiic. i" They say: "When I quote the newspapers my husband laughs at -me.: 6." * * * Mrs. Rowlatt is right.. We’re not apathetic. We're only without knowledge.

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