WOMEN'S FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 123, 26 May 1932, Page 13

WOMEN'S FORUM.

SAVING THE PENCE. Jn future every baby born in Metz, of f French parents, will become the owner I of a savings bank account with a credit * of twenty francs. Tl:c directors of the | Metz savings bank declare that this pro- - vision will not cost the State a son, for they calculate that the increase in busi- jj ness will amply repay the initial saeri- f iiee. Parents, it is believed, when they f realise that liere is the nucleus of a g little store that only the child can touch j. on reaching its majority, will do every- a thing they can to add at least a few „ francs week by week to it. Many par- a ents who are in sufficiently comfortable I circumstances to do it, do not realise g what a few pence a week would amount p to by the time a child reached its d twenties. Even sixpence popped into a i money-box regularly each week would s give a nice little lump sum for the young r person to start life with when it came r of age. One young girl in the city d proudly boasts that her trousseaux I hardly cost her parents a cent —or at *- least they did not notice it as the out- I lay was spread over a period of some c twenty years at the rate of one shilling a week. HATS AND HEADS. ] Frank Battersby, whose trilby hats 8 have won fame, and who probably knows j as much about masculine headgear as anyone, says: "Show me the way a man wears his hat and I will tell you at onc> the sort of man he is." The man to trust, he thinks, is the happy-go-lucky fellow who goes about with his trilby on the back of his head. One of the things that Mr. Battersby lias discovered in the coui'sc of his career is that there is a big difference between a Scotsman's head and an Englishman's, which goes to prove that physically as well as by reputation the Scotsman is longerheaded. Hats sold in England are generally made one and a half inches longer than they are broad, but for the Scottish market they have to be one and seveneighths inches longer than they arc broad. Not long ago Mr. Battersby decided that there was a demand for a really superlativo hat. He had some to sell at £5. The first three were sold to two Scots and a Jew! MOVE THE FURNITURE. The psychological effect' of rearranging furniture cannot be over-estimated. Rooms get set expressions, just as people do. The "make-up" becomes hard and ingrained, and their furniture cannot bear to be an inch out of place. This is what gives a dead look to so many houses, which are either devoid of untidy young people or which possess owners whose arrangements have become merely a habit. New paint and paper, of course, help a room, but this is the more expensive way of achieving variety. A much better plan is to think now and again of a fundamental alteration. The divan, Chesterfield, or mere sofa, for instance, may sometimes be allowed to stick out into the room instead of taking up a long wall-space. There are certain pieces of furniture which may stand out in the middle of the room—a standard bookcase or an armchair —without being set against a well or without necessarily guarding the lire. Low furniture obviously makes a room look larger than that which is high, and with low furniture any amount of changing can be accomplished. Rooms can bo arranged in groups or in corners. A Chesterfield sticking out at' right angles to the lire can be finished up with a square bookcase, if this is about its own height. A corner may be grouped round a little low table. A tall cupboard or escritoire may leave its central position against the wall and fit into a niche, which gives more sense of space. A summer arrangement of a room may differ greatly from that of the winter if only because the lire is less important. Changes of this ldnd keep a room alive and lend it much greater sensitiveness than an arrangement which hardens into the permanent. TO LIPSTICK OR NOT. A battle is raging within the peaceful walls of the Bank of England; it is overshadowing decisions about the bank rate and minor matters like that. The issue is—lipstick. Oa the one side (writes a London correspondent) is the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, all self-importance and disguised as a kind of hatless Mrs. Grundy. On the other are the Young Ladies of Threadneedle Street, elqgant and defiant. A day or eo ago an. order was issued from a very high quarter and posted up wherever girl clerks are engageid in the building. It told them simply and severely that they were forbidden to use lipstick. But the clerks are girls of spirit. They glanced at the complacent Old Lady outside the bank. They tilted tlieir little hats at an even more jaunty angle. Before they tripped their way to work they put on an extra layer of lipstick. It is said that the order has roused 6uch feeling among the girl olerks that girls, who never before adorned their Tips, are now using lipstick every day. Nobody seems to know how the battle will end. To-day I penetrated the banks defences to eeo how the authorities weie taking 1 it. I found that the lips of the girls, lipstick or not, were sealed. I spoke to a high personage, who directs the destinies of hundreds of the bank's girl clerks. "Is it true," I said, "that you have banned lipstick?" "I don't think that question is necessary," she said icily. I tried again: "Why have you done it?" The voice grew even colder still. "I don't think that we need discuss that either," she said. I discovered that there is a blue book of several pages headed: "Rules and Orders for Women Clerks on the Permanent Staff of the Bank of England." Most of the rules dealt with hours and conditions governing the employment of clerks. There is one, dealing with dress, which says: "Navy blue, black or very dark grey are the only colours which may be worn in the ofiices. If col lars are worn, they must be white. During the summer white blouses are ) allowed, but they must bo absolutely white without coiour, pattern or design on them." Finally, it is pointed out that "there 1 are matters of conduct and behaviour" not less important than the explicit ' l'Pirulalions: To behave herself honour--3 a lily in all the private and social rela--3 t.ions of life and that her general con- * duet, whether within the bank or not, - shall be that of a lady and a woman of - principle. '