sometimes accused me of judging people’s intelligence by the interest they took in effective voting; but, although this may have been true to a certain extent, it was not wholly correct.  Certainly I felt more drawn to effective voters, but there are friendships I value highly into which my special reform work never enters.  Just as the more recent years of my life have been coloured by the growth of the movement which means more to me than anything else in the world, so must the remaining chapters of this narrative bear the imprint of its influence.

CHAPTER XX.

WIDENING INTERESTS.

During this period my work on the State Children’s Council continued, and I never found time hang heavily on my hands; so that when Mr. Kingston met me one day later in the year, and told me he particularly wished me to accept an appointment as a member of the Destitute Board, I hesitated.  “I am too old,” I objected.  “No, no, Miss Spence,” he replied laughingly, “it is only we who grow old—­you have the gift of perpetual youth.”  But I was nearly 72, and at any rate I thought I should first consult my friends.  I found them all eager that I should accept the position.  I had agitated long and often for the appointment of women on all public boards, particularly where both sexes came under treatment, and I accepted the post.  Although often I have found the work tiring, I have never regretted the step I took in joining the board.  Experience has emphasized my early desire that two women at least should occupy positions on it.  I hope that future Governments will rectify the mistake of past years by utilizing to a greater extent the valuable aid of capable and sympathetic women in a branch of public work for which they are peculiarly fitted.  Early in my career as a member of the board I found grave defects in the daily bill of fare, and set myself to the task of remedying them as far as lay in my power.  For 30 years the same kind of soup, day in and day out, followed by the eternal and evergreen cabbage as a vegetable, in season and out of season, found its way to the table.  My own tastes and mode of life were simplicity personified, but my stomach revolted against a dietary as unvaried as it was unappetizing.  An old servant who heard that I attended the Destitute Asylum every week was loud in her lamentations that “poor dear Miss Spence was so reduced that she had to go to the Destitute every week for rations!” My thankfulness that she had misconceived the position stirred me to leave no stone unturned for the betterment of the destitute bill of fare.  I was successful, and the varied diet now enjoyed bears witness to the humanitarian views of all the members of the board, who were as anxious to help in the reform as I was.  My heart has always gone out to the poor old folk whose faces bear the impress of long years of strenuous toil and who at the close of life at least should find a haven of restfulness and peace in the State for whose advancement they have laboured in the past.