AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 74, 28 March 1930, Page 11

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WEEKLY BUDGET

(By CONSTANCE CLYDE,)

NEW EDUCATION IDEALS.

A< cable informs us that educational luthorities in Sydney are" considering (iving sex education to the school chiliren, and as, 0 in England, another year : is ibput to be added to schqoMife,.itis ipnsidered ithat this extra time, seeing hat boys and girls of •• fifteen are.... in i [uestion,:' should also, be employed in I luch /training. Wliether anything;will some of tliis agitation in. either. country, ixcepting an occasional moral lecture of bhe usual kind, is very uncertain.; It is :urious that; such lectures; 'are < alw.ays idvocated for the elder children only, ilthough the argument of the reformers s that "children learn the >factsof life | ;'rom tainted sources,'^ this being held to )ccur; : much earlier. Meanwhile, coKhicatiori is,still upheld as a : solvent,of idolescent trpublesl Many of >us like the ideal better than' the arguments Jfised to bolster it' up. '. What can 0% taake of a recent remark in an American magazine )f note: "Without co-education the little jirl is inclined to give to one of her own sex, the interest and friendliness which should be reserved for the other." It is I 'unnatural" for a little girl 'to like mother little girl, she must want always to play with a little boy. Reformers ire as shocked when little boys and girls }o refuse to play together, as people were formerly when they persisted in doing 30. That the child is primarily interested in the game, and just qhbosee whichever likes that particular game does not seem to occur to their-Freudian minds. However, good as well as bad ideas come from America. There, is something in the attempt at one school to interest the children in.'Budgetting. For several months they. are. to keep accounts of their expenditure, ;and so far the i'esult has been good* the children being commended, not for saving, but for wise spending. . .. .: AN ALL-WOMEN JURY. , What is said to be a;n unprecedented incident in civic, life-took place recently in Ashton-under-Lyue-. in England, wlieri the coroner insisted that a jury be coin-j posed entirely of women. The case was one concerning the tragic death of a third illegitimate child, and the coroner's , reason for "his action was "that the case being so very sordid, only women should deal with it."' Surely nothing can so exemplify our changed times than ,tbe advancing of such a reason as argument pro when formerly it would have been argument contra. The "Women's Leader," commenting on the incident, does not altogether uphold the coroner. In England the coroner has a right to call a jury composed wholly of one sex or the other, but the practice of giving certain cases, entirely to men, and others entirely to women, has its dangers. It is now some years since, among other rights, Englishwomen were given the duty of being thus called upon, and the time for dissatisfaction is now over. As has been pointed out, however, it is open for a prisoner's counsel to challenge the woman, candidate for the jury, without its being necessary for her place to he. taken by another woman.

SOUTH NIGERIAN WOMEN. Perhaps' the usefulness of • women in Parliament washever more clearly, established than when Lately the Duchees of, Atholl gave a forceful, t»agic,< but absolutely necessary, speech concerning the lot of native women in South Nigeria. Of late, it Would seem, English men have gone away from the epirit which formerly destroyed suttee in India, and it is the women members of Parliament who are determined to bring it back. ;A woman's magazine gives a resume of the epeech in question. The facto which the speaker had to tell were such as women do not care to handle, nevertheless this intrepid woman did so, and it seeniß fairly certain before she did so, she had ; made quite sure of her case. She dealt with savage cruelty in the name of ; tribal custom perpetrated on the young women of Kikuku, and, comparing these with suttee, stated that while the latter might seem the more tragic, resulting in death, the former destroyed health for. many years. According to her informants, young native women frequently fled to i the missions for safety, yet if forcibly taken away they could obtain no redress for their sufferings from the English Courts; at best, a email fine was inflicted upon tho perpetrator, usually, under the rule of the tribe, an old medicine woman.

AN AERIAL POLICEWOMAN. It seeme difficult to believe that any such official should exist ae an aerial policewoman, but this is the status latelyconferred on Mrs. Ulyescs G. McQueen, of California. Certainly the lady has many claime> to this position, if any woman is to hold it, and it is to be hoped that later we shall hear more of her special duties in regard to her appointment. She is chairwoman of one special Aviation: Society, and was the originator of the Women's Air Derby held in the United States last year, while ehc has been founder and president or vice-president of other organisations connected with aviation. In the air, women have distinguished themselves not only by the height attained, but by the time spent on a journey. Perhaps the longest tour taken by .a woman by air was that of the Vicomtesse de Sibour, with her husband, who last year went on a ten months' pleasure trip. In a Gipsy Moth 'plane they flew from England to France, then to Spain, across the Mediterranean to- Northern Africa, when they proceeded over many places to Siam and-4>chin< China. The Pacific, however, they crossed by steamer to America, after which the pair returneu to England,'their only trouble having been a forced landing on the ■ Atlas Mountains. Twenty yeara ago Madame. Louis i Bleriot was gi-eatly admired for having crossed: the Channel in a Bleriot with ier husband, the British Air Minis-; ter at the banquet commemorating the triumph presenting her' with, a diamond brooch in honour of the event.' :.. !