OVER THE TEACUPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 303, 20 December 1913, Page 15

OVER THE TEACUPS.

(From Our Lady Correspondent.) LOXDOX, October 29. MORE POLICEWOMEN. The trial made in Berlin a little while ago, of appointing female police officers seems to have given satisfaction, as the authorities are now appointing more. WOMAN RELIEVING OFFICER. The Kingston Guardians -have received sanction from the Local Government Board to appoint a lady—Miss M. A. Quinlan —as assistant relieving officer to the Union. PRINCESS AND DEMOCRAT. Princess Ba-riatinsky, who is often seen in London acting under the stage name of Lydia Yavorska, and who, in spite of her broken English created something of a furore over her rendering of Nora in " A Doll's House," is a remarkable type of the modern woman. Though a princess she is a thorough democrat in views and actions, with all the rebel enthuiast's devotion to freedom and progress, womanly in her attributes, yet full of thorough independence and iron will power where she is keen. A HEROIXE OF TO-DAY. There gave a short and very modest lecture at the Lyceum Club last week Miss Grace Saunders, organiser at Sofia of the World's Student Christian movement, who deserves unstinted admiration for the work that, with very little equipment and numberless discouragements, her fine fearlessness and love of humanity enabled her to carry through in the Balkan War. On her return to England from Sofia, when she saw that war threatened, she went (for five days, all she could spa-re!) into a medical mission in one of the London slums, then sailed for Kirk Kilisse, where she worked in the general hospital, and then in an infectious diseases hospital, where she had mainly to depend on peasant lads and girls as helps. Later she had actually to take charge of a hospital in Belgrade, where, although the arrangements were terribly primitive, she had absolute charge, night after night, with only one boy to help, of .100 patients. WOMBX JURORS IX EXGLAXD. There's little—or nothing whatever, surely—attractive in serving on a jurythat is to try, and perhaps punish severely, a fellow being, and the oft-arrived-at decision, therefore, of numbers of thoughtful women that the sex ought to serve is all the more admirable. Only a few day? ago in London the -Women's Institute discussed the question, and it was again advocated that cases concerning women only should be tried by juries of women, while all cases between men and women should be tried by mixed juries, as otherwise there could be no fairly balanced decision. It may not bp generally known that as far back as the loth century women served as jurors in women's cases, and were fined for failing. In Norway women may sit in ail criminal cases, and in nearly all civil cases (those where expert experience is required excepted I, and have even been elected foremen.

Itwasagreed that, as in the case now of men, it would be necessary that certain classes of women should be exempt from duty, and—a point worth noting— that sentimental considerations would have less weight under tbe new Tegime than the old.

FOURPEXNY THEATRE FOR LONDON!

From the versatile brain of Miss -Ros- I ma l-'ilippi. the well-known actress who is ever evolving schemes to make pos- . sible greater popularity for the theatre in England, springs the suggestion that it would be quite po-sible to run a repertory theatre in tbe Metropolis, which should produce only the best plays by tho greatest authors, and not charge more than 4d. lor any seat in the house. The idea was introduced .in a lecture which Miss l-'ilippi is to repeat in '.Manchester. Liverpool, and many other towns in the North, and also before the more important Playgoers' Clubs, and she hopes before long to form a committee to take the matter in hand, pointing out that such a scheme has met with unqualified success in Milan, "where the people's theatre coutains 2,300 seats, all cushioned, comfortable, and possessing an uninterrupted view of the huge stage, all priced at 4-i. each. Tbe theatre is constructed out of a dilapidated drillhall, and it is on tbe same lines that she proposes to set to work here. Mr. Bernard Shaw and Sir John Hare have both promised their support. HOSTEL FOR POOR WOMEN. It is an interesting development that memorials which for so many dreadful years that it is doubtful whether anything but an earthquake (which would derange delightful things too. unfortunately), will rid England of them, took the form of sculptured horrors in public spaces, should so often now express themselves in model hostels to meet the everpresent need for better and cheaper housing in London. A very fine hostel lias just been opened in a grimy quarter, which will lie run partly on philanthropic lines, and at which beds will be obtained for od and Gd a night. Lodgers may cook their own food, or bav.e it supplied to them, a dinner of meat ami vegetables costing only 4d. A tablet in the hall is inscribed: "This building, to be known as the Mary Curzon Hostel, was erected in 1913 hy the relatives and friends of a woman tender-hearted and beautiful, who in her short life sought to make tbe lives of women happier in many lands. Mary Victoria, wife of Lord Curzon of Kedleston. Born 137". Died l!)0fi." BABY CLINICS. So undoubted has been the success of the comparatively few baby clinics and schools for mothers in and around London that the Women's Labour League, which has much fine work to its credit, is embarking on a national campaign for the establishment of clinics in'other parts of the country.

It is pointed out by the general secretary of the league, who is Dr Marion Phillips, an Australian scientist who has interested herself for some years in social work in this country, that in a few towns the infantile mortality rate is higher than 160 per thousand, while, even in good years, there are as many as 120 deaths for every 1,000 born. As children grow up the death rate lessens, but the rate up to five years of age is about five times as much as the death rate for any other group of years.

Resolutions arc now being sent to the President of the Board of Education, tbe Press, and the Labour party, asking that medical treatment may begin at the beginning and children be as healthy and free from physical defect as possible when they enter on school life;.