Improved Status Of Women
p. 42 · Read in the full issue
Missionaries
IN connection with its “triple jubilee” the London Missionary Society held an At Home in Auckland recently.
The gathering was addressed by Miss Hilda Small, who formerly was a mem ber of the mission in Western Samoa.
“At the present time,” said Miss Small, “the London Missionary Society has travelling in this Dominion a fully or dained woman minister, the Rev. Kate Hutley, of Tingchow, China. Such an advance in the status of women has been achieved with persistent struggle.
“Six wives sailed on the ‘Duff’to Tahiti with the early missionary pioneers in 1796, and two of the great grand daughters are present at this meeting, Mrs. Harold Ennor and Mrs. Carnachan.
“The first woman missionary to be ap pointed by the society was Maria Newell, to Malacca in 1827, and the first single woman missionary to China was Mary Aldersey. The directorship of the society was thrown open to women in 1890, and the first woman secretary was Mrs. Parker Crane, in 1920.
“History was made by Mrs. B. Chaffey, MA, by her appointment in 1941 as the first woman chairman of the board of directors.”
Signalman J. C. E. Swinbourne, AIF, who was taken prisoner in Crete, June, 1941, and who spent four years in a POW camp in Germany, has now returned to Australia. He was formerly resident in Fiji, and the G. & E. Islands Colony.