To Women of the Future

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 130, 19 December 1941, Page 5

To Women of the Future

HEN I was in Washington, a wealthy woman, who was also a very ardent suffragette, had given a beautiful house which was to be the headquarters of all women’s organisations, for all nations, for all time. This magnificent gift had to be publicly dedicated to the cause of Women, and a great ceremony was arranged. As it included all nations, they had. roped in representatives of every country and race they could find, and I was invited to act for New, Zealand. Each representative had to supply what they called "a message," and this was engrossed on parchment, and deposited in a large marble urn at the entrance. The urn was sealed down, and it bears an inscription stating that it is not to be opened for a thousand years. The magnitude of the whole thing amazed me; its comprehensiveness, and this long period, of waiting before the messages we wrote were to be revealed. I had no experience of writing such a message to posterity, to generations of a thousand years hence, and I forget now what I did write. But I signed it, and then had the bright idea of adding "Kia Ora" at the end. I thought this might give the scientists of a thousand years ahead something to get their teeth into.-("Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax," Nelle Scanlan.)