The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

sincerity. J when thel' r..- in this issue 0 The Vlsit. through that)“ m. u: , ' ollabora ion sq . m c- C tmas who is [ionul Federatiiin' ,oruen‘s Insti- tutcs of England and' Wales,‘hss just completed a strenuo _itinersry, dur- ing which she-baa ited each prov- ‘ ce. ‘ , ,. lnIzlnroute from western provinces “is. Christmas was woléomed by the afliirrs of the Thunder, Bay District \\'mnen’s Institute Where she was enirrtained at a luncheon on April 9 at the Prince Arthur Hotel, Port or. Later in the day Miss Christ- ma- addressed a large and represenâ€" taliw audience at the Masonic Temple in :‘urt William. A reception and tea follwwed around by the presidents of he four Lakehead Institutes. Mrs. A. \lsnley, Board Director, Mrs. B. F. Dmcls, President of Thunder Bay 11: rict. and Mrs. J. Goddard, Secre- in. vTreasurer, were in charge of l s. ' p hile in Toronto on Monday, April in . Miss Chrishnas met oli‘icers of t]. Women's Institutes and the stafi a; we Women's Institute Branch with rr sentatives from the Farm Press an Farm Service Force. ‘ <5 Christmas said she was sent by In niin to convey to the Women’s In- sl i res of Canada a'message of heart. I“ gratitude for all that had been rim to help and encourage them in l ears of horror' and suffering. 2 all the gifts, none have been r i, welcome than the thousands of p vts of tomato and vegetable seeds v regularly every spring for the : four years by the Women’s In- 51 dies of Ontario. They have been (I) wihuted to every county, and have ul their way into thousands of s. A new class has been added it the village flower and vegetable . “The Best Collection of Vege- o' grown from Canadian Seeds." been a popular class, with ingly good entn'es, for Canadian ‘ Hertiordshire them to deal more eflectively with ' seelds have taken kindly to British sci . The handâ€"sealing machines sent by} the Federated Institutes of Ontario have been used primarily in. the fruit- growmg counties of Warwickshire, and Kent,» helping the surplus plum cro . At the re nest of the British Minislt’ry of Foodc,l the Institutes of Britain set up 1,174 co- operative fruit preservation centres where they made 6,000 tons of jam. This was sold to the general stores for distribution. In referring to some of the im- portant aspects of WI work, Miss Christmas emphasized the fact that the. organization is primarily an edu- cational one. Its purpose is to develop the talents of the members. As an illustration she told the story of an aged woman who had maintained a home, and brought up a family of children, earning her livelihood by taking in the village washing. She began to take an interest in WI. work and was encouraged to take part in a drama program. The play won the cup at the county competition and the following year the same group were winners, and later successfully com- peted with eight other drama groups at the National Competition in Lon- don. In commenting on the success of their efforts, the old lady said, “You know, they don’t think of me now as the village wash-woman, but as the member who was leading lady in the play that went to London.” While in Stoney Creek, the birth- place of Women’s Institutes, Miss Christmas was the guest of honour at a delightful luncheon, given by the executive of the Stoney Creek Wom- en‘s Institute at the home of the President, Mrs. A. Jackson. Seven of the charter members were present, one of whom read the minutes of the first Institute meeting in 1897. These were Mrs. George Glidden, Mrs. Fred Madden, Mrs. John Budge, Mrs. B. E. Thompson, Mrs. Walter Denne, Mrs. H. P. VanWagner and Mrs McKinley Morgan. At a public meeting in Battlefield House, Stoney Creek, Miss Christmas said, “This child of yours has grown to quite a flourishing youngster in England, numbering 5,870 Institutes with a membership of 350,000.” A graphic story was told 0f the 950118 FAREWELL FROM MISS CHRISTMAS In .r Institute Members: I am writing this on the eve of In ning Canada for England and I am e" ‘I,’ home with mixed feelings. On I: one hand I hate leaving Canada ar‘ the friends I have made here and n he other hand I am longing to get ‘< . to a Britain free from bombs 3. blackouts. Now, after five and s .“N ' Years of destruction, we can to. our hands and minds to the task wt reconstruction. We all have an- otlur chance to build an enduring ere with freedom from want and flwdom for fear for all men and “when. May we work together un~ “'3' 1nEly to attain that end. During the war the Women’s Insti- lu‘i have helped those in want with p hw- helped us in Britain in ways for \‘,l.ll‘l’l we shall never cease to be ll ful. You are helping now the I"“‘DIB in Europe, and I want to thank Ihu Institutes in Ontario again on be- half of the National Federation of Iinmen's Institutes for your generous gift of $200 which you have giVEn for the relief of the liberated coun- tl'ltf of Europe. ReePing ourselves alive to the needs of others will still be our aim m [Ills posbwar period, but perhaps the most important work which the Institutes can do is to continued to to] help and sympathy. Your train its members to be the sort of citizens who will think for themselves and not be blindly led; who learn to make a first-cass job of homeâ€"making, but whose vision is not bounded by the kitchen sink; who will work intelli- gently for the welfare of the com- munity and who understand that, in a world where we all depend so'much upon each other, the community is not limited to our township, hut com- prises the world and every human be- ing. _ I am going back to my work in the Institutes in England and Wales, re- freshed with many ideas I have learned from you, which will help us there. I look forward to the day when cheap excursions between Britain and Canada will allow us to Vi3it_each other more often and exchange ideas. It was an inspiration to me to visit Stoney Creek, the home of Institutes, and see the splendid work done by the Institutes of Ontario. I want to thank you all for the welcome you gave me and the Department of Agrlculture for arranging such a delightful tour. I hope that many of you Will be able to visit Britain soon. There is a warm welcome waiting for you from every Institute member there. Good wishes to you all in your work. Yours sincerely, ' (signed) Elizabeth Christmas A WEEK WITH MISS CHRISTMAS of British housewives in rural areas, who carried one of the greatest bur- dens ot the war in keeping the home, feeding and clothing the family, en- tertaining evacuees, and assisting in so many of the voluntary emergency services, and part-time wark work. To harassed housewives the Institute . meeting has been a rock in a shift, ing world. One president wrote as follows: “We had 17 bombs on this village during the flying-bomb attacks last autumn. Our meeting place has been damaged more than once, but we have not missed a committee or a monthly meeting since the war started.” These war years have developed a sympathetic understanding of the dire distress in Europe and the Institutes in Britain have accepted the respon- sibility of knitting four tons of wool monthly to be distributed through U.N.R.R.A. for the people of Europe. On behalf of the Ontario Women's Institutes, Mrs. Hugh Summers, the Provincial President, presented Miss Christmas with a cheque for $200 to be used for the relief of the liberated countries referred to by Miss Christ< mas in her farewell letter. A very pleasant evening party was arranged by the Dccew Falls Women's Institute on May 3rd at the home of Mrs. Lash. Some of the ladies at the party had only been in Canada a short time, so this proved to be a de- lightful opportunity to get first hand information regarding some place or person in the homeland especially dear to them. Since Miss Christmas was particu- larly interested in the girls' work be- ing done in Ontario through the Home-making Clubs, one day was de- voted exclusively to junior work. The Department of Agriculture in Hamil- ton entertained Miss Christmas at the Staff House, where she met an en» thusiustic group of leaders at the lunch hour, and in the afternoon, at a meeting in the Wentworth oflice of the Department of Agriculture con- ferred with them regarding various phases and procedures in club work. In Lincoln County Miss Christmas attended an evening meeting at the farm home of the club leader. Mrs. G. Mackesey, St. Catharines. “The Club Girl Entertains" was the unit chosen this year. All the group par- ticipated in a “flower arrangement" demonstration using flowers gathered from the garden of the hostess. The party ended in a gale of merri- lnent when we played some novel games conducted by Miss Christmas. On Saturday, May 5th, Miss Christ- mas was the guest of the Eastern 0n- fario Institutes. A delightful luncheon was given at the Chateau Laurier where the officers of Eastern Ontario and Quebec had an opportunity to welcome Miss Christmas to the capitol City. Mrs. K. Dalgleish, Ken- more presided at a public meeting in the hall of Southminster Church. The Institutes of Britain are makâ€" ing great plans for rehabilitation. Women are being urged to act on housing advisory committees, and in Northamptonshire a total of 509 de- signs were submitted in a recent “Ar- chitecture Competition for Rural Cot- tages," promoted by the Federation of Women’s Institutes. Residential Short Course schools have been a development of the war. Out of this the idea has arisen for a permanent residential college to ac- commodate the short courses. This plan is now before the authorities for consideration. Mrs. Laura Rose Stephens, well known to Ontario Women’s Institutes, graciously expressed the pleasure and gratitude of Canadian Women’s Insti‘ tutes in appreciation of Miss Christ- mas’ visit to Canada and gave to Miss Christmas a message of love and admiration for the sister Institutes of Britain. In reply, Miss Christmas expressed the hope that there would be many similar ex- changes of visits, among the country women of the world. “If We try to think internationally â€" really do something about it, we shall be laying the foundations of peace.” (Contributed by Miss E. Collins, Women’s Institute Brunch.) Miss Elizabeth Christmas, General Organizer, N.F.W.I. of England and Wales, with the protrsit of Mrs. Adelaide Hoodless, O.A.C., Guelph.