WOMEN'S WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 143, 18 June 1926, Page 15

WOMEN'S WORLD.

SOCIAL JOTTINGS

Mrs. Percy Heath-Preest and her daughter leave hy the Tofua on Saturday for a tour of the Islands.

Mrs. Lloyd, of Coogee. Sydney, is stayin" at Hotel f argen awaiting the arrival of Mr. Lloyd, arriving by the Niagara on Monday from Now York.

Miss Sybil Payton is visiting Auckland, and is th<> guest of Mrs. Sydney Thorne George. Remuera Ena<i.

Mrs. Maurice Sinclair has returned to Kelson after spending two months with her mother. Mrs. W. Pavitt, Portland Road, Rerunera.

Mr. and Mrs. D. McKay, of Le Bon9 Bar. are visiting Auckland, where they intend staying for a month or six weeks.

Airs. A. Westlake, mother of Mrs. Herbert C. White, of Victoria Road. Devonport. ha? left for England on an extended holiday trip.

Miss Roberts, who has so successfully grown hothouse tomatoes, pave a most instructive talk to the Gardening Circle of the Women's Club in Dunedin.

A meeting, tinder the auspices of the Trained Nurses' Association, of all the women's organisations in the city took place in Dunedin on Monday to consider a proposal to establish a women's rest room and creche.

Amongst the arts and crafts display made at the Canterbury Women's Club was a tea service of beaten silver, which contains £25 worth of solid silver, and ■was made by its proud owner at the local School of Art.

ladies who, by a series of "vanishing tea?." started a fund for animal welfare, will be interested to i know that the proceeds of their effort have been handed over to the recently formed Animal Welfare League. The moneyraised amounts to £S5 4/. This includes a year's interest.

Two intrepid young girls, the Misses Gweu and Mollie le Bas, have had the unique experience of crocodile hunting in India, and are none the worse for their adventures. Miss M. Le Bas has earned distinction also in sculpture, having exhibited at the Academy. The monthly meeting of the Takapuna I branch of the W.C.T.U. was held at Milford on Friday, when Mrs. Penning, the president, presided. Mrs. Benfell, the Auckland president, and Miss Bradshaw, the Dominion organiser, addressed the

meeting. A motion of protest was passed i against the action of the licensing committee in granting a license for the waterfront hotel in the face of so much •opposition.

An. Australian woman botanist, who has achieved distinction, is Dr. Jean White, member of a well-known Melbourne family. She was the second woman to obtain the degree of Doctor of Science from the Melbourne University, and in 1912, when the Queensland Government decided to start an experimental station in the heart of the prickly pear country, in order to combat the pest, she was appointed to the position of director.

In Palestine, as a result of the elections for the Jewish National Assembly, 26 women sat, a gain -of 12 compared with, ,the_i-rsjt.i-ssernys, that,-26 wrdmen in a total of 201 delegates, compared to 14 women in the first assembly, with its 335 delegates. A resolution demanding equal rights for men and women was unanimously accepted by the assembly.

Miss Holly Barker, formerly of Christchurch, and now residing in London, in a letter to a relative, dated May 3, says, states the Christchurch "Press": "I heard Archbishop Julius preach in St. Margaret's", Westminster, on Anzac Day. It's the loveliest old church I've ever been in. He preached a wonderful sermon, it carried mc back over the years. He is very much older, and looks very frail. He told them of the people of Canterbury, of the beginning of the province, and of the wonderful people of all classes who went there, of the ideals they carried with them, and' of their courage and endurance, and how the early traditions had been handed down to their children. He said ' the children of those first settlers were the finest he knew in any part of the world. He thrilled the people in the church; one could feel the thrill."

A largely attended meeting of the Auckland district executive of the Women's Christian Temperance Union was held in the "East Street Hall on Monday, 14th inst. Mr 3. Peryman, editor of the official paper of the union, "The White Kibbon," was present, and gave a powerful address on the possibility of helping the cause of temperance by circu-' lating the paper. A short report of the Peace Day meeting wae given by Mrs. Judson, and Mrß. Neal briefly reported the work of meeting the immigrants on arrival at Auckland. A motion of appreciation of the action of the City Council in objecting to the Government erecting more hoardings in the city, was passed. The president (Mrs. Benfell) announced that the district convenion would be held at Dominion Road on September 15, when the national president (Mrs. T. E. Taylor) would be present. ENGAGEMENTS. The engagement is announced of Annie, youngest daughter of - Mr. and Mrs. Harry Mann, "Mil-field," Forest of Glen Tanar, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, . to Frank Sydney, second son of Mr. and Mrs. H. Bertrand, Stanley Bay, Auckland. WEDDINGS. A very pretty night ■wedding was solemnised at St. Matthew's Church by the Rev. Grant Cowen of Marjorie Melva Arnott, daughter of Mrs. J. Arnott, 130, Williamson Avenue, Grey Lynn, to Mr. James Russell, son of Mrs. J. Russell, Heme Bay. The bride, who entered the church on the arm of her brother, Mr. B. R. Arnott, wore ivory duchegs satin, with f>ourt train lined with silver tissue, caught at the waist with diamante ornaments. Her Brussels net veil, held in place with orange blossom, fell to the bottcm of her train. She carried a , -shower bouquet of white flowers and maiden hair fern. Miss Leanore Scott, of Dunedin, acted as chief bridesmaid, ■wearing pale pink georgette, with feather trimming. Miss Althea Arnott, niece of the bride, wore lavender georgette with feather trimming. Miss Audrea Shergold, also niece of the bride, wore pale georgette with feather trimming, all three wearing silver tissue . hats and shoes, and carrying posies to tone. . The bridegroom was attended by Mr. Robert Hindman as best man, and Mr. Cyril Gilliland as groomsman. The reception was held at Nairn's. Mrs. Arnott received her guests. w:earing. black silk marocain, black hat with ospreys. Mrs. Russell, mother of the bridegroom, wore a navy blue coat frock and blaefc f4_£s.4S£s_ Jtforevtf, *""

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WEEKLY BUDGET. (By CONSTANCE CLYDE.) RUSSIAN MARRIAGE LAWS. An account of Russia which seems fair and unbiassed gives a description of the easier divorces of these times, but states that even then such divorces are not nearly so numerous as in America. Extra marital alliances are recognised, but marital ones are even more frequent than formerly, not less so. When desirous of a complete separation both parties must appear before the authorities, but no questions are asked as to the reasons for this desire. This is held to be as absurd as any query as to the reason for marrying. However, children must be provided for by the father before he can contract another alliance, and a curious story is told of one who had first to provide for the deserted husband, who happened to be a cripple. This man had been supported by his wife, therefore, through the authorities, he claimed redress from the man who wished to "marry" his wife, before this second marriage could take place. Illegitimate children are provided for in Russia, but the word ''illegitimate" is not used ifi any derogatory sense, and there is no compulsory removal of child from mother, as is now the law in New Zealand. Women keep their own names on marriage, if they choose. An application form is sent them, and if they do not use it it is understood that they intend to retain their own surname. As regards the children, there is the quite original idea that they take the name the initial letter of which is highest in the alphabet. This is a change from the often-proposed coupling together of both parents' names. If this regulation is followed a few generations should find most surnames beginning with A or B or other letters near them, while S's and the W's should be weeded out entirely. '

One feature of social life in this country is said to be the freedom with which young people of from eighteen to twenty-five meet together to discuss social problems, always with the greatest frankness. N

RIGHTS OF PEERESSES. Last year a hill to admit peeresses to' the House of Lords was defeated by only two votes. We have yet to hear the fate of this measure during the second session, but it ig expected that this time the bill is due for success. Women of the nobility have suffered, perhaps, proportionately more than any other class through the anti-feminism of the last two centuries, the anti-feminism which is being conquered only in quite modern days'. At one time a woman, failing brothers in the family, inherited the title, but the law of entail, brought in some two hundred years ago, cut her out effectually, and now the peeress is nearly always merely the woman, often not an Englishwoman at all, who is married to

a peer. This fact has perhaps subconsciously helped to keep her, in modern times, legislatively outcast. Yet as, after all, the modern peerage is often, as someone has put it, the beerage, there is no doubt that this reason should no longer count. OUR MODERN LACK. To-day there is a curious lack of horror against certain offences, which, once classed as unnatural, are now coming to be regarded as part of human nature. The very extensiveness of such crimes in modern times makes this new view more acceptable. Even the "Women's Leader" showed this tendency the other day in the case of a man sentenced to nine months' hard labour for a certain crime against hie own young daughter. The expression hard labour is, as everyone knows, really meaningless for the most part. The girl concerned has been removed, co that when he returns to ordinary life, after his "rest cure," she will be safe. The law, however, cannot prevent his return to another child of eight years old. Very rightly, this law should be altered, but it does not seem to occur to these reformers that all children, as well as his own, are in danger when he returns. He cannot, however, be classed as a mental defective, for such men are defective only on the moral side of the brain, as the scientist has explained, and not on the mental. Our own New Zealand women have been agitating for more consideration for the innocent and less for the guilty. It is to be hoped that their arguments will at last have some weight. EXCLUDING WOMEN.

The English Anti-feminist Association, mentioned in the cables, seems to have drastic views as to the "keeping down" of women. One is accustomed to hear that married women should be kept out of employment, but now an investigation is asked into the matter of all women as workers, while some sentimentalism over her place as wife and mother is evidently to hide the resolve that she shall not be permitted to be anything else. Possibly many will think that the rigid manner in which many feminists urge industrial equality with men is bringing about this reaction. How far insistence induces reaction is, of course, not easy to cay. Miss Susan Lawrence, M.P., has been approached on the matter of equality, and, while unable, to give practical support to the demand for immediate complete equality, has upheld the ideaL Many persons and societies of note were in the deputation that waited on her. Meanwhile an instance of social exclusion, which seems symbolical of the larger issue, ie amusing many people in London. A certain new Art Gallery was to be opened in Hull, the Prince of Wales performing the inaugural ceremony. And it has. been decided that all ladies are*to be kept out! Not even certain lady guests invited by the donor of the gallery (Mr. Ferens) are to be admitted. Says the Art Committee naively: "Accommodation is limited, and one must draw the line somewhere."