WOMEN'S FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 18, 23 January 1933, Page 9

WOMEN'S FORUM.

A TELLING STORY. The ex-Kaiser is a very great autocrat in ilia garden, and in the rosarium nobody may pick one flower without his express permission. A visitor walking there •with the Emperor's two stepdaughters the other day picked them each a rose for their buttonholes. The poor young ladies almost wept with panic. For they said, "The gardener will tell the adjutant and the adjutant will tell the Chamberlain, and the Chamberlain will tell him . . The Kaiser still takes exercise by chopping wood, but he never fails to dress in full uniform each night for dinner. No ceremony, in fact, is easily abandoned in his household even in these days. A FOREIGN CUSTOM. It is interesting to note that cups and saucers are everywhere replacing the little bowls from which the people of Afghanistan formerly sipped their" tea. The manner of using the cup and saucer, however, it not after the Western technique. Instead of lifting the cup by its handle, the Afghan leaves it in the saucer and raises both cup and saucer to his lips in the right hand. Europeans who have practised this style of teadrinking find it perilous in the extreme and the suggestion hag come from more than one quarter that it might be adopted for competitions at garden fetes and bazaars. There is a danger that it might prove expensive to run a competition on these lines, unless a sprinkling of Afghan visitors could be induced to give a demonstration first. HOUSEHOLD NOVELTIES. The last American Housewares Exhibition held in New York revealed that the housewife's burden across the Atlantic is to be further lightened by many new devices. There was a portable washer-dryer on view which is said to be unique. A rubber bag in the oven is filled with water through a /hose attached to the tap of .the sink. In thirty ■ seconds the resulting pressure dries the clothes. The water is then released- into the sink by a valve. The wet garments are not even touched by hand. There is also a new ironing machine with dual control, knee or hand, with a special pressing feature for pleats or heavy fabrics. A new type of table cloth is white one side with the reverse side in a variety of colours. Other developments include kitchen clocks to match the colour scheme, aluminium ware in powder - blue, Nile green, and other colours'. The newest colour for bathroom equipment -is coral, and shower curtains can now be had in period designs. There is to be bought a square waslitub, with removable legs on castors to make storing easier, and toasters, juice extractors, waffle irons, and other electric kitchen appliances have become almost human in control. D'oyleys of cellophane imitating laces are another novelty. • They can be had in larkspur blue, white, marigold, yellow, and tea rose, and may be used as centrepieces, tray t*vers, fruit dish linings, or under vases. 1

DECORATED DOGS. A dog's life does not seein.<to be a hard thing to bear abroad these days. There are now to be had dog brooches that proud owners of "Peeks" and other pet dogs will find hard to resist. These are made in opaque jade and tinted crystal! Some of tlie models have diamond feet, others have diamond collars. Practically every breed of dog has been faithfully sculptured 111 gem stones of one kind or another. A JILL TAR. There is a 15-year-old girl named Jean Ironside, living near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. who wants to be a sailor. Hearing that the Turkish Navy took'girl recruits, she applied for admittance to the Marine School at Constantinople, and she was very depressed 011 being informed that she could not be accepted because shfe had not been educated at a Turkish secondary school. i "I have lived in this little village all my life, and my only experience of the sea was when I went 011 a steamer trip from Aberdeen," she said. "But I know several sailors, and their tales of far away lands and exciting adventures In romantic countries thrilled me, and I used to listen to them for hours. "I suppose it is just a craze, but I have longed for the sea since I was a small girl."

MEN ADMITTED. The students of Girton College, the famous school for girls in England, are rejoicing 111 their new found freedom in receiving their men friends in college and in meeting them outside. They are to be trusted, says an English paper. What has been sanctioned in special circumstances is now allowed generally. Instead of a request for special permission being made in person to the newly-appointed mistress of Girton, Miss H. M. Wodehouse, notification will be given by the filling in of a form. The change in the regulations was announced only recently. Hitherto the students have been allowed to receive men in college until C.30 p.m. Now they can receive them there after dinner between 7.45 and 10. The hostess may also receive a man in her sitting room without a third person being present. Another concession is that students may attend dances outside college now by the mere signing of a form instead of applying in person to the mistress for permission. Girton College is two miles from the centre of the town, and it was purposely placed at that distance in the 'sixties. It has waiting rooms for its members off King's Parade, and there students may now meet undergraduates under conditions which permit of private conversation.