Early in 1972 the twinning of provinces for Centennial Year was promoted and several exchanges took place, under the Secretary of State, between branch Institutes here and in other provinces.

Following the A.C.W.W. Conference in Oslo in September, 1971, the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada asked us to support their commitment to the Lesotho Project, supplying a Landrover for the use of their Women’s organization, the Lesotho Homemakers, and the Save the Sight Project, all branch Institutes responded wholeheartedly, ex-

ceeding their allotment.

Rural schools were being closed out by consolidation, and many Institutes were encouraged to buy the now unused schools for community centres, availing themselves of special grants for upgrading the structures.

The Summerside Lobster Carnival requested the Women’s In- stitutes of Prince Edward Island to promote a Woman of the Year competition to be held in conjunction with Women’s Institute Day at the Carnival in Summerside. A committee of Mrs. Mary MacLean, Mrs. Louise Marchbank, Mrs. Elizabeth MacAusland and myself divided up responsibilities so that the competition could be carried out, an evening’s variety show staged, and an information booth and display arranged and manned. The reprinted cookbooks were available for sale at this time.

Following acceptance at our Annual Convention, a resolution requesting that the Canada Pension Plan be altered to make survivor’s benefits available to either spouse was sent to the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada to be prepared for the F.W.I.C. Triennial Con— vention in 1973.

In preparation for Centennial Year, it was decided our Com- memorative Gift to the Queen’s bedroom at Fanningbank, residence of the Governor of Prince Edward Island, would be a night spread, quilted in the Lady’s slipper design; and hooked stair treads for the bedside

steps.

The Department of Environment requested our assistance in conducting an Island-wide survey on Garbage Collection and Solid Waste Disposal Sites. We were only too happy to co—operate, for the cleanliness of our province is a main concern of ours. At their request, we named Mrs. Louise Marchbank to represent us on their committee set up to establish guidelines for future plans.

Land Use was becoming a widely discussed topic, with hearings being held across the Island. We were not given sufficient time to survey our membership so that a formal brief could be presented, but I ap- peared before the commission, and expressed our concerns over the practice of using productive farm land for housing development, the lack of legislation requiring adequate open spaces for recreation in such sub— divisions, the acceleration of strip development along the highways, and the erosion of public access to Island beaches. \At the request of the

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