WOMEN'S INSTITUTES
Sir,-When Barbara Harper in her most interesting and informative article speaks of 1946 as the Silver Jubilee of the Women’s Institute movement it seems to me that she expresses only a half-truth. When I was a youth in Canterbury in the nineties of the last century Women’s Institutes flourished in that province. It was, I think, in 1896 that I listened in the Old Provincial Council Chamber in Christchurch to the opening of the Annual Conference of nearly 400 delegates. If my memory is not at fault and the movement started about 1893 then New Zealand led the world in this matter. After about a decade of enthusiastic activity round about 1895--the year in which commodity prices, falling continuously all over the world for 20 years reached their lowest level for half a century-the movement died out, partly because the radical nature of the Government and increasing prosperity removed much of the mental irritation that caused this remarkable outburst of intellectual activity. Unfortunately I am no longer in Canterbury and thus have no access to the files of the local dailies of that decade. Perhaps someone (and who better than Barbara Harper?) would do a little research in this matter and thus complete the picture of the Women’s Institute movement in New Zealand.
J.W.
M.
(Auckland),
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19461213.2.14.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 390, 13 December 1946, Page 5
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218WOMEN'S INSTITUTES New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 390, 13 December 1946, Page 5
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