BSI Women’s Place is Still at Home
pp. 71-72 · Read in the full issue
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MISS THEA HARRY, former Melane sian missionary, now on the Bris bane staff of the Young Women’s Christian Association, said in Brisbane recently that women in the Solomon Islands were drudges “but were not looked down upon.” In Melanesia, girls grow ing up had no problem regarding the career they would follow. They knew they would get married. They learned to grow food as well as to cook it; how to care for children; weave mats and bas kets, and make clothing for all the family.
According to Miss Harry, the greater the skill of the girl, the higher the price she fetched from her prospective hus band. Melanesians did not favour their girls going to school, because they thought the new learning would give them less time for the domestic arts.
M. Edouard Mercier, prominent Noumea business man and owner of the town's chief bakery, died at the age of 80. He had been a member of the New Caledonian General Council and the Noumea Municipal Council. One of his sons
played a prominent part in thq anti d’Argenlieu riots in 1942, and afterwards served with the New Caledonian contin gent in North Africa. Another son is Emil Mercier, well-known Sydney car toonist.