NOTES AND NEWS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 134, 13 July 1914, Page 4

NOTES AND NEWS.

Mrs Wigram, who has been spending a short time in Wellington, returned to Cliristchurch by yesterday morning's boat.

Mrs F. H. Pyne, who has been in Wellington during the Plunket Conference, staying with Mrs Algar Williams, returned to Christchurch yesterday. Mr and Mrs Dalgety were passengers to Christchurch from the north yesterday. Miss Townsend, Wellington, is visiting friends in Christchurch. "'Mr and Mrs D. E. Theomin, of Wellington, are at present visiting Christchurch.

Professor Boys-Smith, who occupies the Chair of Home Science in the Otago University, is at present on a visit to Christchurch, and is staying with Mrs Haase, Montreal Street. , Miss Ellen Miller has been elected Queen of the Palmerston North Carnival, the number of votes polled by v her being 31,336. The next highest number was secured by Miss Taylor, who had 30,139 votes to her credit. Miss Sneyd-Smith, who has just resigned the position of secretary of the Canterbury Horticultural Society after holding it.,for seven years, has been elected! a life memb,er of the society and a vice-president. The committee has also presented her with a handsome hand-bag, as a slight mark of appreciation of her services.

Miss Ellen Terry visited the Baillie Pictures yesterday afternoon, says Saturday's "Evening Post." The actress very thoughtfully' drove, after her re cital on Thursday nighty, to the Thorndon Hospital, taking with her some glorious violets and narcissi for the patients. It was almost midnight before she could get there, but evidently weariness and trouble do not weigh with Miss. Terry when there is a kindness to be done. • A wedding of interest took place at the Anglican Church, Parnell, Auckland, recently, when- Mr Percy Maude, son of

Mr A. H. Maude, Oamaru, was married to Miss Dorothy Ward, daughter of Mrs ' H. Ward, of Parnell. Mr and Mrs Maude - left later for the south, and joined the southern boat on Friday evening en route for Oamaru. They arrived in Christehurch on Saturday morning on their way to their home. It says much for the 39 women who attended the Plun'ket Conference, and it contradicts the popular masculine assertion as to feminine excitability and unbusinesslike capacity, that during the :? whole proceedings there was not a word •f bickering or a touch of unpleasantBess. All were working hard for a com- . mon end, and the public does not fully realise the enthusiasm and disinterestedness of these women who represent 1500 •ther women in New Zealand. They give their labour and money—for they pay every penny of their own expenses— '■ ' to further the great end they desire; and' all honour to them for it! In face of v- the constant irritation and scenes at .present, in purely masculine gatherings, this unanimity, unselfishness, and devotion are the more remarkable. The association deserves every-eneouragement. — '' Evening Post.'' Mrs J. D. Mill ton entertained a number of young people at a pleasant little dance at her residence in Garden Road •n Friday evening. Amongst those present were Misses Helmore, Gwen Millton XGeraldine), Hailey,. Beckett (2), Westenra, Bowden, Thomas, Pyne, Dixon, Pinckney; Beadel, Crystall, Cowlishaw, Messrs Millton (2), Hailey, Beadel, John- ** son (2), Turner, Helmore, Blunt, Anderson, Burdon, Cotterill, Hamilton, Robinson, Rattray, Rich, and Harris.

Mile. Jeanette Diiportal, a member of a family who made history in the second Empire, has gained the coveted degree of ©octeures Lettre at the Sorbonne, an academic order resembling closely the English LL.D. This is the first time such an honour has been gained by a woman. Miss Williams, an Englishwoman known to all students in Paris, has lately been decorated (at thes same time as the "Divine Sarah") with the much coveted Legion d'Honneur. The honour is enhanced by' r< the'fkct that Miss Williams is the first foreign woman to be thus decorated. .Those who know her know how well she deserves the .distinction, for probably no other woman has done more for the cause of education in France. She passed, her. aggregation before the days when only French women were allowed to become professeurs in Lye'ees, consequently she enjoys the unique position of being the only English woman who has the right of a professeur in France.

Discussions on little jeeonomies always lead to awful and unexpected revelations of their '' falseness.'' None the less, most of us enjoy our saving days quite as-.much, as those on which we spend riotously (says a contributor to the '<■ Pictorial"). And who can say that it is not delightful to have done something economic, even if it appears on the wrong side of the balance, if we have the conscience to draw one up. There are two pictures. One of the economic woman travelling ten miles by ,to save two-pence on what she means to buy. The other, of the economic male ''saving" on the little things and calling the big '' necessities.''

A certain section of the male fraternity is said to be taken with the ideas of the futurist ..in dress. Signor Martinetti, lecturing at the Dore Gallery, Loudon, recently* explained that the only rea : son that he appeared on that occasion in simple evening dress was that the new one-piece trouser suit designed by the futurist artist Balla was still in the hands pf the tailor in; Home. "Why," asked the lecturer, "not one round and one

gcniare sleeve? Why meaningless buttons, \ fc?s» above Jill, why adherence to one

or two- colours? The futurist will have patches of coloured cloth, which he will stick upon his suits at different times of the day, to suit his fancy or his occupation. It will be simple to adjust and essentially comfortable."

The author of a recent clever novel says:—"The women I pity are the ones who have never had a chance of living, in the best sense of the word. Oh! the starved, stunted lives that some of them live, away in corners of the world, dying slowly, like plants that are hidden from the light. I lived in a governesses' home for a year, and it made my heart ache to see some of the inmates. They had lived ajl their lives in the same weary rut, their horizon bounded by syntax and the multiplication table, drudging all day for a pittance, and creeping to bed at night too weary to think." Queen Alexandrine of Denmark is a sister of the German Crown Princess and a daughter of the late Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and his wife, the Grand Duchess. Anastasia of Kussia, one of the wealthiest women in Europe. Queen Alexandrine is the most unaffected woman imaginable, and loves nothing better than riding a bicycle on the country roads in the neighbourhood of the Eoyal country residences. On these little private excursions she delights in dismounting occasionally to have a cha* with her humbler neighbours, or perhaps she invites herself to tea at the villa of some friend or other. Her two sons, Crown Prince Frederick and Prince Canute, are both active members of the boy scouts' organisation. Not long ago the Queen invited the entire brigade, including the Princes, to tea at the Sorgenfri Castle, where she and the King personally did the honours by handing out tea, ehoco-

late, and cakes,