WOMEN'S CORNER.

Matter for insertion m this column should be addressed to the _ Lady Editor, and should be fully authenticated. Mrs J. Borthwick left last night for "Wellington. Mrs Bethel (Pah.au Pastures) Has been in town during t"Ee ■week. Mrs Richards (Hororata) is in town. Mr raid Mrs Burton (Orari) are staying with Mrs Cox (Burfield). Mr imd Mrs C. Everard (Wellington) are staying at Coker's. ' Mr and Mrs Crease, who hare been staying at the Grosvenor, Timaru, have returned to Christchurch. Mr and Mrs Simon McKenzie (South Canterbury) aro in Wellington. At the Methodist Church, Palmerston North, on Wednesday, Miss Lifla, daughter of Mr end Mrs T. Rimmer, of Foxton, was married to Mr R. A. Dixon, of the Bank of New Zealand staff, Waipukurau. Miss Solig (Christchurch) is visiting Wellington. | . A tendency of the time was observed at Saturday's sitting of the Wellington Military Service Board. A motor driver appealed, and the Board dismissed tho appeal, the chairman remarking that a girl could be got to do the work. There are in one ward in the Reefton Hospital at. the present time seven old ladies, whose ages aggregate 534 years. They are all in possession oi their full a_s well a 8 being cheerful and optimistic. Their ages arc, respectively, 85, 80, 80, 79, 75, 74, and 61. They have been many years on tho West Coast. On Saturday last a most successful children's fancy dress dance was given by Mrs Herbort in aid of The Terrace Day at the Wellington Red Cross Shop. About one hundred children were present at the dance, which was held, says the "Dominion," in the ball-room of - the • Nurses' Home of the Bowen street Hospital. One _of the stipulations in connexion with the dresses of tho children was that they were not to be expensive, and as a result quite a number were made of crinkled paper, with the prettiest and happiest of results, bon-bons and flowers of all descriptions being perhaps the most frequently chosen. Two prizes were given for the most original character, one Being won by Miss Jean Hiley, who represented the "Dominion," her dress being of white sateen covered with printing, save for the space in front occupied by a map of New Zealand, while on her head was fastened a little cluster of electric lights. In her hand she carried a small electric battery. The_ winner of the boys' prize was Dr. Elliott's little son, who represented a pillar-box, also very effectively carried out. Nino months or more ago a training school for girl telegraphists was opened by the department in Dunedin. It is now closed and dismantled, says the "Star." •. Presumably it is not needed any longer. But its record is such as to give rise to the liveliest satisfaction. About 40 girls entered upon the course; they nearly all went through, and those who learned their | profession there have mostly turned, out to be thoroughly competent operators. These girls are now in appointments widely separated throughout the Dominion from the Bluff to as far North as Tauranga. They realise, we feel sure, that Mr I. I. McGregor and the other instructing. officers opened up for them the highest possibilities of ihaix course at the school.

At the opening of Mrs T. Hall's hospital for Australian nurses in London on June 30th, Mr Fisher, High Commissioner, said that he had received striking and grateful official .tributes to tho efficiency and devotedness of tho 1600 Australian nurses at present working in the European war hospitals. The Sligo Corporation has conferred the freedom of the county on the Countess Markiewicz, who has been released from prison, where sho had been serving a sentence of 10 years' imprisonment in connexion with_ tho Irish rising. The Corporation invites her to contest the next Parliamentary vacancy. AN HEROIC WOMAN DOCTOR. Additional news has been received in Sydney regarding the death, on February 11 th. of Dr. Laura Forster, from heart failure after influenza, at Zaleshchiki, in Galicia, where she was taking the place of a woman. Dr. King-Atkinson. Dr. Laura Forster was an- Australian by birth, but had made her homo in England for many years, and had been trained both as a nurse and as a doctor. She practised as a doctor for some time in Oxford and other places, until- the Balkan war broke out, when she went to Epirus, and worked very hard and very courageously as a nurse. In September, 1914, _ she joined the medical staff of the British Field Hospital in Antwerp, and Dr. Alice Benham, who joined at the same time writes of her in "The Common Cause" : "Dr. Forster was a very keen and enthusiastic member of the 6taff, and was always ready to take part in Red Cross expeditions just outside Antwerp where the fighting was taking place. "When the bombardment of the city was followed by the evacuation, Dr. Forstor showed great pluck and endurance during the retreat to the coast. - Dr. Forster arrived at Stara Chelnoe in September last year, looking tired and thin. She had just returned from the Caucasus near the fighting line, where she had to put up with a 1 good deal of discomfort and had found the summer heat and dust very trying. The way she ignored her own comfort and undertook strenuous work was very much to be admired." Of Dr. Forster's work in Russia, Miss Moberly writes: "By the death of Dr. Laura; Forster, our units havo lost an invaluable helper, and some of us, including myself, an intimate personal friend." She was a fair woman with an indomitable courage, and sf love of adventure, which led her into many out-of-the-way corners of the world, and sent her, after tho fall of Antwerp had driven her out of Belgium, first to Northern France to minister to the Belgians thero, and later to Russia, to see if she could find scope for surgery. I believe she was the first English woman doctor who ever worked in Petrograd where she arrived in the autumn of 1915. and at once set to work to master Russian. By tho time I arrived in December she was giving her services voluntarily in the men s surgical deoartmont of the biggest town hospital (of 2000 beds), working verv happilv with the Russian doctors without need of an interpreter■ " In December. Dr. King-Atkinson heard that her husband had received injuries in France which necessitated her immediate return to England for a time, and Dr. Forster replaced her in Galicia. . AMERICAN GIRLS AND PACIFISTS. NEW'YORK, May 10. The girl students of the Tewkesbury ' School in Scarsdale, N.Y., have been advised to refuse to marry pacifists or men with pacifist tendencies. Further than that, they were instructed not even to make friends of such._ This advice was given by the National Special Aid Society, of which Mrs William Alexander is president, in an address made by Mrs Henry A. Wise j Wood, national secretary of the organisation. She said that tho exist-»

ence of the war had brought American women face to face with a set of problems entirely new to the women of this generation. "In all recorded history," she said, "there have been cowardly men who wished to be the protected ones and not the protectors. These cowardly men are against universal training and service bccause these things compel them to defend the as well as the bravo men who are willing to do it. "The coward is an historical character. Whenever there has been fighting to do ho has tried to escape under some plausible name or other. In England lie calls himself a 'conscientious objector,' and says he should not be made to fight. In the U.S.A. he calls himself a pacifist or a humanitarian, and says he ought not to fight. But e coward by any other name is a coward, still. Beware of him! "Always throughout life remember that tho man who will not defend, his country will not defend his wife, his child, his home. IX> not have such among your friends. Make the first test of the young men you admit to your acquaintance their patriotism. Carry this formula throughout life: No man who is not a patriot is to be trusted with a woman's welfare." TO-DAY'S RECIPE. Baked Banana Pudding—Take about three large bananas, one pint of milk or milk and water, two small eggs, one tablospoonful of sugar, rind of half a lemon, slices of stale bread and butter. Peel the bananas, and cut them into fairly 'thick rings, using a plated or silver knife, if possible, as a steel one would blacken the fruit. Butter the bread, lightly. Mix the grated lemon rind with the sugar. Line sc greased pio dish with slices of bread and butter, then fill it in with layers of the fruit, sugar, and bread. End- with a' layer of. bread and butter. Well beat the eggs, add the milk, and pour into the dish. If the bread is stale it must be left to soak in the custard until soft through. When it is soaked 'stand the dish in a tin containing water, and bake it slowly until set and lightly browned. The water in the tin helps to prevent the custard from boiling. It must be baked very slowly. If it is cooked fast it will curdle.