The proceedings in connection with the sixth annual conference of the National Council of Women of New Zealand were opened in Dunedin yesterday with a civic reception to the visiting delegates in the City Council Chamber at noon in the presence of about 60 ladies. Mrs Carmalt Jones (dominion president of the council) extended a welcome to the visitors, and said the delegates were looking forward to an instructive and pleasant time together. The speaker proceeded to refer in terms of praise to the work of the pioneers in the movement, including Mrs Reynolds and Miss Kelsey, who had done a vast amount of work quietly. These women had blazed the trail, and had cut through obstructions of all sorts to clear the path for those who followed in their tracks, and who took up the tools that had been laid down through failing strength, but not through failing spirit. Their path was along the lines of women’s evolution, and they wanted to work for equality in moral standards, equal rights of citizenship and equality of legislation, which at present was not giving fair consideration to the women’s point of view. Mrs Jones proceeded to advocate three things in connection with their movement — speaking in public whenever the opportunity presented itself, speaking well of individuals, and not speaking at all if the speaker could not speak well of anyone. Miss Kane (president of the Wellington branch) expressed hearty thanks. She thought she might claim that they had made a little progress in regard to women justices of the peace. In this year’s discussion it was admitted that women were not totally unfitted to be justices of the peace, but it was not thought that it was quite time yet to pass the Bill. The women hoped, by keeping up the agitation, to convince the legislators that they were not unfitted for the job. The speaker also referred to the women who had laboured in the past to make the council the very successful society which it was at present. They were looking to the future, and in Wellington they had very great hopes in regard to future achievement. They were very glad to see that many of the younger women were taking the places of those who had blazed the trail in the past. These young women were welcomed very warmly.
Onga-onga worth avoiding
The onga-onga is a tall shrub, armed with stinging hairs, from an eighth of an inch to a quarter of an inch long, and leaves with toothed edges. Mr J. Cowan, Maori scholar, had some experience with this stinging plant in Ohura Valley, between the open lands of the King Country and Taranaki. It grew 10 or 12 feet high, and its virulence seems to have been in proportion to its growth. "All of our exploring party," Mr Cowan states, " were more or less badly stung, and suffered the effects for a day or two. Our unfortunate horses were the worst sufferers. Two of them went mad with the poisonous stings, which caused their sides and legs to swell. A pack-horse drowned itself by rushing into a creek and diving in the water in its desperate need of ease from pain. Really bad onga-onga stings provoke feverish sickness, and it is prudent to make a detour of hill slopes where the plant grows rather than encounter too closely even insignificant little specimens. On some parts of the Port Hills near Christchurch, if a person is on a steep, slippery slope, and reaches out for a handgrip, as likely as not. instead of a friendly flax-bush or tussockbunch, the onga-onga will be there waiting for you with his devilish little stinging hairs." — ODT, 2.9.1924
Compiled by Peter Dowden
