AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 250, 22 October 1928, Page 10

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WEEKLY BUDGET.

(By CONSTANCE CLYDE.)

Why do we vote at 21? What is the special sacredness of this number of yeitrs? An historian advances the novel theory that it is due to the heavy armour of the later medieval ages. Till that innovation, the boy was considered adult at 15 or 16, adopting then, as we know in classical times, the dress of the man. When armour became heavy, however, he could not wear it until five years later, and thus 21 became his majority and later his voting age, extending to women, who do not bear armour. The fact that, normally, people get their last teeth, or wisdom teeth, at this age is said to have some influence on legislation. In that case, the humorist says, a dentist should attend the polls! In America nowadays it is rather the man than the woman whose suffrage is curtailed. In three States soldiers and sailors may not vote, while in three also duellists are expressly debarred. America is trying hard for some system of absentee voting. There is a saying there, "If the election day is wet, the Republicans will be defeated," for then the farmers will not be able to come into town. I doubt, however, .if they will agitate to give voting facilities to patients in hospital, as some New Zealanders have been urging.

A WOMAN'S DOSS HOUSE. Our prose writer and poet, Mies Jessie Mackay, has a feeling and clever letter in "Time and Tide," regarding 1 immigration, its dangers and its possibilities. When one reads in this same number of the magazine a description of a woman's doss house, we can see how eager some must be for a new land. As yet we have no such refuge in New Zealand. These places are few in number even in London, and they are certified by the authorities as decently kept. Here are women bereft of ordinary lodgings because the only places they can afford "will not take children." An. other is here until her husband can send her 20/ at once so that she rar> pay in advance for apartments. The great danger of these places is engendering in the younger women the "doss house spirit." Comfortless as are the dreary dormitories and the shared kitchen, the women after a while get to prefer the idle, irresponsible life, and then no effort will be made to take up home life again. The older women lose their industry not so easily. Some employ themselves looking after the children, while the mothers seek for work. One, on an inspection visit, was noticed in a corner still intent on her occupation of making wire label holders for bottles. The women pay any sum up to 9d each night, the rates'paying for extra expenses. AUSTRALIAN WOMAN'S ADVANCE. There is no reason, of course, why a woman should not be a school inspector. Nevertheless, Miss Julia Flynn, of the Victorian Education Department, found some sex* antagonism when she received an appointment as assistant inspector of secondary schools in her native Sta.e. carrying with it a salary of £620. When the post of chief inspector became vacant, the authorities narrowed it to male applicants only. As a result Miss Flynn would have had the ignominy of seeing a junior appointed over her hand. However, she appealed, as she had a right to do, to the Public Service Commissioner, and he compelled the Department to advertise the position a second time, allowing women entrants. News has just come that the fight has been won, and Miss Flynn given the higher position with its salary of £721. This is not the highest salary paid a woman in Victoria, however, as a lady doctor, a school medical inspector, receives £741.

THE "BRONTEAN" MUSEUM. So many of England's historic curios have been taken to America that it is heartening to notice that some at least are being returned. Thus an American woman, Mrs. Henry Houston Bonnell, of Philadelphia, has cent back many possessions of tine famous Bronte sisters for inclusion in the museum lately instituted to keep their memory alive, if such a memento is necessary. In her collection are Emily Bronte's writing desk and some 500 manuscripts, among them being the originals of Charlotte's letters. The museum 'has been arranged in the very old vicarage that they Inhabited, and many writers in the old land have made a pilgrimage and recorded their impressions. Charlotte Bronte had a slight connection with New Zealand. A friend of hers came out here, sending back a slightly unpleasant criticism of the people, but as this was more than 60 years ago we will forgive her.