AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 21, 25 January 1924, Page 11

AMONG OURSELVES.

i A WEEKLY BUDGET. (By COXSTAXCE CLYDE.) I QUEENSLAND JURYWOMEN. "As soon as the regulations under the last amendment of the Jury Act have received their final touches, women will be at liberty to join the ranks of civil and criminal jurymen." So says an Australian writer of Queensland. ""Probably the first sittings this year will witness mixed juries, just as the beaches in summer exhibit' mixed bathers." It lis not. compulsory frfr women to serve on jurie3 but they may enrol if they ! choose, and once on the list they are j liable for a summons. It says much for I the Queensland women that' many have ■ put down their names. Of course there j are great discussions as to whether j women prefer to be tried by their own sex or not. "By my own if* I am innocent, by the other if guilty," said one of them epigrammatieally. As regards masculine opinion on the matter, there is considerable doubt. No doubt as others assert, safety will lie in a division of the sexes, and the men jury having the advantage of the women's view point behind the scenes may give better verdicts than is at present the case at times. Women magistrates, says the Australian writer,'must logically follow, and these are perhaps more necessary. A WOMAN JOCKEY. Women on the racecourse are not unknown to history, for it seems that in 1804 one rode in a challenge match, a. fortune being at stake. She did not win, however, being less fortunate than her successor a hundred years la.ter, who. in 1905, rode against a male jockey in a one mile race at Epsom, defeating him. An officially recognised woman jockey, however, is another matter, and such appeared quite recently at Newmarket, England. This was a jumping event, the course being four miles long, and needless to say that course was thronged with spectators. Though handicapped by having an extra weight I put upon her horse, the lady rider did fairly well, coming third. A film actress is said to have offered one hundred guineas for a race to be run with the jockeys all women. SEX IK MUSIC. If there is one art into which sex animosity should not intrude surely that is music* In London, however, strong prejudice is being shown against women musicians especially as regards orchestras. Certainly the all-women orchestra ie sometimes put forward as a novelty, but the lady musician rather dislikes this on the whole, nor does this compensate" for the general dislike to our

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sex as forming part of an orchestra. Except as harpists, however, in many cases they are not admitted. The head of one great orchestra said openly that he would rather employ the most dud man than the greatest woman genius. Among so many narrow-minded men, Sir Edward Stoll is io lie admired for fairness in this respect, but he is almost ail exception. The injustice is all the greater as music training is arduous and expensive, and women were encouraged to take it up when there was a shortage of men during the war. : — - ENGINEERING WOMEN. ; A god-daughter of Queen Victoria, but more famous in other respects, Miss Victoria Drummond has just done her third trip to Australia as a ship"s engineer. Miss Kenny, sister of the well-known suffragette. Annie Kenny, also thought of tlie sumo occupation, but is now a wireless operator, the lirst of her sex in this occupation. ' Women engineers engaged in their avocation are now a fnirly common sight in the big English cities, but. sometimes the. policeman forgeta this. It is related for instance, that, such an oflicial was horrified to see a woman in quite ordinary dress standing on a parapet on one of the bridges. Now a policeman knows only one reason why a woman should stand on a parapet; she is intending to commit siticidc. If he is up-to-date, for a policeman that is, he may suspect the picture film. i There was no camera in sight however, so the official rushed up in perturbation, almost causing the tragedy which he wished to avert. She was simply a lady engineer in ordinary dress directing her workmen. ENGLISH WOMEN'S PREPARATION Among the women's organisations in this critical period in England, some maintain that they should concentrate upon one reform, letting others go for the time being. Such a special drive might be made they consider for the widows' pensions. It is now held, however, that such concentration will not be practically possible. This pension scheme has, of course, many adherents. The Conservatives have given it much praise, and the Labour party, what is better, a definite promise. With the former in general there is j little hope for women. Their way is to cay of equal adult franchise, for instance, that it will come in time, so why should they bother, and of that other desideratum, equal pay for teachers, that it. will never come, so why bother? Of the widows' pensions they promise something will come when the* financee of the country permit, which is tantamount to saying that nothing will be done. Both in parliamentary and town council elections the women still keep up their plan of blacklisting candidates or members who oppose them. This idea does not work very well as regards Parliamentary affairs, because an M.P. may be a great feminist in one important point and may be quite backward in others. In the* town elections, however, there is much less of this contradiction. The Manchester Women's Association is very active with both kinds of lists, and" seem to take the lead. As regards their towns nothing is too small to escape their attention. Would-be councillors must be quite orthodox on the question of nursery and special schools, also in the increase in the number of child welfare centres. An interesting suggestion is put forward that a certain portion of a park should be railed off for the smaller children. This would certainly atone for the absence of women police, which makes working mothers reluctant to let their little girls play in the parks alone. In these and other matters the Manchester women seem much to the fore.

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