Virtual Volunteering - Mission

Mission - Part 1

Page 129

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(Stamped: Department of Native Affairs 19 Apr, 1943 Perth, W.A.)
Moore River Native Settlement
MOGUMBER.
12th April 1943.
The Commissioner of Native Affairs,
Murray Street,
PERTH.
Dear Sir,
I regret having to inform you that a request
you made some time ago in connection with Sunday Service
attendance is not being complied with.
 I have refrained from reporting this matter for a
number of weeks, asking first for the co-operation of the
Acting Superintendent. He absolutely refused to do this and
further added to my difficulty by giving the girls permission
to go to Mogumber for picnics. This has been going on for
several weeks. The average attendance of Compound girls
at the morning service has been eight. I pointed out to him
that if picnics were approved for Sunday I thought at least they
might be arranged to take place after morning service. These
girls already have a day off duty during the week, so that
Sunday is not their only opportunity.

Yesterday very few people attended morning service.
Four girls were taken by the Superintendent early in the morning
by truck to Mogumber and the truck returned at nearly midnight,
a very long time after "lights out".

I feel it is quite useless to try to discuss this any
further, or to reach any satisfactory arrangement with the
A/Superintendent, and as the matter threatens to become a very 
grave problem in the moral and material welfare of these working
girls I feel it is very necessary to bring it under notice.
I need hardly point out that after such a long day these
girls are hardly fit for duty the next morning.
Yours truly,
(Signed) Eileen Heath
Deaconess

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