AMONG OURSELVES.

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

AMONG OURSELVES.

(By CONSTANCE CIA'DK.t

A WEEKLY BUDGET

CHILD ADOPTION IN ENGLAND. The National Child Adoption Association, founded by Miss Clara Andrew, held a conference at Wembley, which aroused much interest. England, it is often said, is one of the few countries in which there is still no hard-and-fast adoption law. That is to say. the natural guardians of the child do not lose their rights immediately on giving up the child, and it is only by the lapse of lime and by their own failure to make a claim for return that gradually they cease to have any rights. In Continental countries with adoption the new guardians obtain all the rights and responsibilities of parents, the real parents having thereafter no rights whatever. Miss Andrew and her fellow associates desire that this rule be applied to England, and point out the dangers of blackmail under the present system. English sentiment, however, is on the side of giving the real parent, especially if a mother, some limited opportunity of having restored to her a child with whom she may have been induced to part through temporary poverty. If the English law as it stands inclines good-hearted persons to adopt genuine orphans, it may be said to do good. Generally ("peaking, the ri.l.t type of adoptive parent is not anxious Ito build her new parenthood on another woman's loss.

WOMEN JURORS AND SENTIMENT. That women jurors will not unduly favour their own sex seems to be proved by the rather startling case at Lyne, Kngland, the other day, when a jury composed entirely of women brought in a verdict of guilty against a girl accused of murder. She was only 21 years of age, only two years older than Loeb (mentally older), who was let off by judicial authorities, all men. In this English ca3c the girl was one of a suicide pact made with a man, w,iu had deserted his wife. Tho man died, and th.: jury of women, apprised that the survivor of such a suicide pact is the same as a homicide, brought in the verdict against the girl accordingly. Compare this true story with a very good Active effort in one of the leading American magazines. This story, which gained a literary prize, was one wherein the women on the jury are shown as influencing the male jurors to bring in a verdict of not guilty against the man in an age of consent case, out of sympathy with the accused's young daughter. When will woman's innate though untrained sense of justice be given full credit in those numerous woman-jury stories that are now appearing? HOUSING SCHEMES FOR WOMEN. At a meeting of the Women's International Housing Congress lately Lady Denbigh described the scheme founded

iii 1023 for giving homes to the many i women who now cannot pay ie a t, g f or , t l,e usual flats. "Flatlettes" is the new l name for the accommodation offered, < the first building being at Maida Vale! : The tlatlette is never more than 13/ a ' week, and consists of bed-sitting room, small kitchen, and bathroom. There arc common apartments, such as recreation and sitting rooms on the ground door. A Danish delegate present at the , ..-ame meeting gave details of a businesslike scheme set on foot in Copenhagen. Here a building was erected aa a cost of what amounts to £37.000. The women invested a-tenth part of this sum, and borrowed the rest from a bank on the security of the municipality. The amount the 130 occupiers pay i 5 f rom C>l) to .€3O per year. Some difference in national temperament, maybe, is shown by the fact that there are no recreation rooms an.l sitting roomß quite as part of tbe establishment. "Therefore there is no danger of our quarrelling." says one, explaining the arrangement, "as each of us has her own domain." On the basement, however, there are dancing halls and restaurants, from which extra money is sometimes obtained. AMERICAN CHILDREN'S LIBRARIES. A bright account is given of children's libraries in New York, and their "missionising" effect in turning young SjTians and immigrants from mid-Europe generally into American citizens. These children* are not accustomed to gaining their knowledge per medium of the printed page, and when they learn to do so it is considered a triumph for the girl librarian. Fairy tales are much I appreciated, especially those of the more | gruesome kind. Girls and boys are often very proud when a father, and still more a mother, takes to reading the library book. By these persons, middle-aged men though they usually are, the story of the poor boy who made food seems tuoet liked. However poorly written and full of sugary sentiment, it is always appreciated. The average child, whether immigrant or native-born American, has its own idea of realism. "Oh, I did like this story so much says one, coming back with his volume, "it is so like real life. The father put his little girl out of doors and swore—l wonder what he twore," he adds wistfully. The librarian looks at the book with some consternation — it had been given her as one quite above reproach. "He swore that she should never darken his doors again," added the boy, still feeling that something had been omitted in an otherwise enjoyable tale.

A WOMAN MAIL CONTRACTOR. ••Queen of the Road" is the nickname of Mrs. Peters, who is well known in New South Wales. She has acted for fifteen years as mail carrier, and for these fifteen years, it is eaid, never missed a trip." In 1918 the coach was changed to a motor car. This, too, she learnt to drive, though her real interest was horses. Though a grandmother by now, however, she still continued her work, carrying both mails and passengers. Another woman in the vicinity doing unusual work for a woman is Mrs. West, of Dundoo. Her husband

and mates were doing rabbit trapping in a certain area, and for a long time she took the rabbits to the freezing works, a distance of fourteen miles. She drove four horses, the journey there and back being taken every day. Usually she drove with a baby in her lap, and two other children beside her, and this is perhaps the little addition to her worlc l which few men would care to take on.