AROUND THE TEA TABLE

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 112, 13 May 1924, Page 13

AROUND THE TEA TABLE

j (By SHIRLEY.) j

I MATTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST. <

Even in the more or less stately British. Parliament there lias been a housewifely debate on the branding of the egg. * Nationality as well as birthdate is to 'be inscribed on each one of them! "As if an Italian hen laid a different egg from a French or British one," say the women in some scorn. If national why not parochial as well? Would it not add an interest to the New Zealand breakfast table if we perceived whether the egg we were consuming came from windy Wellington, picturesque Dunedin, or arrived more or less frozen from still further south? The Australian women are getting up "a wave of indignation" over what is called the Polini case. This is a marital separation trouble, during the course of which the judge gave custody to the father because the mother was an actress and would 'be always moving about. At one sweep therefore it is declared that a. woman who is commercial traveller, actress, lecturer, etc., is unfit to have the charge of her own boy or girl! In this case there seems nothing to guarantee that the father will remain in one place, he took no vow whatever, and can give up this virtue, if such it be, at a moment's notice. Very probably the judge belongs mentally to the period of Florence Marrynt's "My Siatei the Actress," of the seventies, when tht la<ly of the stage was supposed to Ik continually drinking champagne or re ceiving Lord Vavasour, while hoi ! neglected child was commiserated bj I frowsy landladies. As regards Madami I Polini, the judge has stated that "i: . circumstances alter the lady may appea I again," meaning that if she gives up the work to which she is suited and consent! to starve herself and her child by doim charing or plain sewing, she will b< given that child to starve in sobriety and virtue. Wanganui people are saying "we an getting more and more like Aucklam every day, that being the most benc factioned city in the Dominion." This i I anent Wanganui's latest presentation o quarters to the Plunket Society givei jby Mr. and Mrs. Tuck. Wanganui, how I ever, has gone beyond our city in on i respect, being, I believe, one of th ' twenty towns in New Zealand that hay a rest room for mothers. I notice ou , Auckland women are maKlng anotne ] vigorous attempt in this direction, s i that it may soon boast it is gettin I more like Wanganui in that respect any ■may. During the winter months I believ there are to be many lectures an I debates on the child, by those who ai either parents or teachers. Unfortv nately, the modern teacher has usuall too many children to know what I child is like, and the modern paren * too few.

Says an Australian authority:—"The trouble about marriage is that it is like / life itself—dangerous. No regulations •* can ever make it safe. It •will always remain an adventure, hence its popularity. If it should ever cease to be an adventure, young people would not be . bothered about it. There have been (. marriages entered into by foolish young i things who broke their way into it ] through the fires of love. And there v have been marriages contracted by sane * and judicious persons who saw to it i that station in life, wealth, tempera- « ineiit, and all those things were as they 1 j should be. And as a rule the former « class of marriage has turned out as * well as the latter. The fact is that it . is Nature's business to look after mar- ' riage, and Nature works through in- < stinct, and not through reason- Of ■ course instinct is often mistaken, but not nearly so often as reason!" < An Auckland visitiDg lady Las told mc < how she travelled up in General Booth's ' train and had the pleasure of listening to him speaking at the stations. Pro- < sumaMy, however, she did not have the ' experience enjoyed by Mrs. Asquith, when Margot Tennant, in conn<-( , * : ti" j with the rcresent General's ilinnt.i. Tather. In her autobiography the exPremier's wife relates how she found herself in a carriage reserved for the I geat evangelist, who, after a brief conversation invited her to be prayed for kneeling beeide him on the floor of the carriage. A brief conversation on theology followed, leaving both contestants with considerable respect for each other. "You have an impression that I am frivolous," said Margot in effect, "but as a matter of fact I am never flippant about serious things." The Margote of Now Zealand, whether high-spirited or otherwise, will follow suit with regard to the "old" General's successor now with us. Young Dave was contemplating matrimony, and Dad was giving him his views. "Yer don't want to place too much confidence in the flash tarts from town—they're all talk and powder. Why, some of them females from the shops have no more idea of milking than an 'en. Flash as 'ell they are. When it comes ter taking a wife, yer want to get a female from a milkin' family, and one that doesn't brag. Some of them town tarts would freeze a j bloke's blood with their stare if yer asked them to do a bit of grwbbin' or I split a few rails. All that eort think of jis spending yer money on silk stockings 'land fal-lals. Look at yer Mα! Never ' I knew what she could do till we'd been I! married two days. That's the sort to I 1 get hold of, can do two ordinary men's 1 j and three pommy blokes' work. That's [ the kind yer want, Dave." > When will we know that the Labour ; party has really "hit" in New Zealand? - When we see its public meetings attended by women coming singly. At present there are many ladies in the audience, ! but I notice in Auckland anyway that I they arc always "taken." The husband s has persuaded the young wife, or the - earnest young man his "best girl." I 7 don't say the ladies don't enjoy the i music and the addresses, but the "taken" t look is usually in evidence, especially at the addresses.