SOCIAL JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 308, 29 December 1924, Page 11

SOCIAL JOTTINGS.

Miss Ina Robertson, of Leeston, Canterhurv, in the guest of her aunt. Mrs. K. 11. "Reid. I'rafton Road, Auckland.

Miss. I'egpy Nortnn. of C.instehrr.-h, is visiting Auckland, and is the guest of Mrs. Ucorge Bloomficld.

Miss Laura Stone, the well-known singer, has left for Australia, where she will sing in the principal towns. .Miss Elend Pizzini, of Hamilton, is spending a holiday at North Auckland, ami will be there a few months. .Mrs. Rogers and Mr. A. Rogers, of Brougham Street, Wellington, are visiting this city, and staying with relatives at Devonport. Miss M. tl. Farquharson, M.A., who has for the past six years held the position of senior mistress iv the Southland Technical College. has been appointed senior mistress in the Hamilton High School, with charge of the Girls' Hostel.

Mrs. Percy .lones. of Christcliu**cl|, formerly of Auckland, nnd Miss K. Logan arc visiting Auckland for the Cliristmas holidays, and are the guests of Mrs. C. Stevens. Epsom. Mr. nnd Mrs. Vivian Riddiford, i.re visiting Auckland for the races, and are staving at the Grand Hotel. Sir.-." Reid and the Misses Reid, of Motutapu, arc in Auckland, and u*e guests at the Grand Hotel. Mrs. Gaffney, of Sydney, is at present in Auckland, and is the guest of her sister, Mrs. Dargaville, Remuera Road. .Mrs. Gage Williams is staying with hot mother, Mrs. Thorne George, St. Stephen's Avenue. Mrs. Reeves, of Darlingpoint, Sydney, is paying a visit to Auckland, and is staying with Mrs. Hugo Friedlander. Nearly 40 per cent of the workers in the cotton mills of China arc women.

Pittsburgh's only woman licensed engineer attends the boilers in the high school of that city.

The increase in the number of feminine workers behind the camera is said to be higher than in any other field. Mrs. Arthur S. Bird, vice-president of the National Council of Catholic Women, recently received the papal decoration, "Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice," from Pope Pius. Mrs. Henry Landes, acting mayor of Seattle, Washington, taking advantage of the absence of the mayor, gave the police department 24 hours to clean up the city of bootlegging and gambling.

Madam de Tokine, Russian noblewoman, makes a living in Paris by studying the personality of wealthy women, then giving them a prescription for the kind of clothes, materials, colours and lines suited to them. The feminist movement has advanced far Bince the days of the suffragette agitation was in the limelight of public affairs. It was abandoned in the early days of the Great *v"ar, and most of the originators of militantism and hungerstriking have departed from the scene. Mrs. Pankhurst has taken up social work in America, and her daughter, Christabel, is also there, and is now the leader of a popular. religious movement. Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, the other member of the militant triumvirate, also left the Women's Social and Political Union. Lady Rhondda was an enthusiastic supporter of the W.S.P.U., and is still an active leader on behalf of women's interests in public life.

Women to-day are filling with credit positions in almost every avenue of industrial, professional and commercial life, with but comparatively recent opportunities for fitting themselves for these positions. When we think of the way women have been handicapped in the past, and know that in a great many trades and professions they are competing sucessfully with men, the advancement shown is wonderful. The result of the May examination for the Degree in Medicine conferred by the London University—a goal only tho cleverest men and women strive for—shows that of 79 in the pass list 34 were women, and of ten in the honour list three were women; while a woman also carried off the Gold Medal — surely proof that woman's intellect is equal to man's. It was long a grievance among women writes a woman correspondent) that they were allowed to sit for examinations at Oxford and Cambridge, but were debarred from recognition as graduates of these universities. These outworn limitations are being removed by degrees, and we have to record the abolition of one more. Women's colleges have, in line with the longestablished men's colleges, had their •'Fellows" —that is, graduates holding stipends on condition of research, but women's college "Fellows" were not recognised as such. But a memorandum just sent by the secretary of the University of Cambridge Commissioners to the Vice-Chancellor may prove to be a removal of this disability, for it declares that "the term 'Fellow of a College' includes Selwyn, Girton, and Newnham." This is no mere barren honour, for the university commissioners go further. They state that, having arrived "provisionally" at certain conclusions regarding the organisation of teaching, it adds that: "The commissioners will proceed with the drafting of statutes and ordinances in accordance with these conclusions." The commissioners devote a paragraph of their memorandum to "the position of women in relation to teaching," in which they say: "As at present advised, the commissioners contemplate that the statutes will be so framed as to render women eligible for professorships, readerships, university lectureships and examinationships, subject to the reserved recommendation by the Royal Commission. The have dealt with the position of women in the organisation of teaching only. As at present advised, they propose to leave to the university itself questions relative to the admission of women to share in the government of the university." This means, therefore, not only that women Fellow's will be recognised, but we may actually have, mirabile dictu, women setting' examination papers for men! ENGAGEMENTS. The engagement is announced of Miss Doris Hume, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Hume, Kipling Avenue, Epsom, to Mr. Desmond Williams, eldur son of Mr. and Mrs. Norman T. Williams, Remuera. The engagement is announced of Miss Bella McGaughey, youngest daughter of Mrs. F. Gavard, of Kihikihi, Waikato. to Francis Leonard Eden, only son of Mrs. William Fraser, of 21, Harbour View Road, Northland, Wellington. The engagement is announced of Miss Ida Mortland, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Mortland, of Taihape (late of Kajapoi), to Captain G. H. Boles, D.C.M. (late Ist Battalion 3rd N.Z.P.8.), fourth son of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Boles, of Thames.

The engagement is announced of Miss Kathleen Giles, eldest daughter of Mr. and the late Mrs. Giles (Wellington), to Mr. Leonard William*., youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Williams, Parnell.