LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7848, 27 April 1891, Page 5

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.

TO THE EDITOR OF TBH %RBB3,

Sib,—Oar «irh>~Bless them I—overiooS JnSrsk. f oyser'a , .rejoinder, ** Xbst Goo &M. c My made thm to mitcb tiiQ urn — 1 aoi, &c» A FAIHJBS. ChpJatdittrcb, 26th April, 1891.

TO TH» BDJTOB GST TBX FSBW. Sib,—Almost everyone to flarlsfcenjirea colonial girls t»** t «W <sar | d OT &l y ?S columns of Friday *$**>, and whfcnjes like a email hammtuM amongstus. moss

the writer was ecawelr&lr to .one or two statements lie made. Hβ did not cake in to consideration the difference of climate. The girls here are, perhaps, not physically up to the English standard, but there is no doubt the climate has a great deal to do with the matter. It is more enervating, and the girls suffer from indigestion and poverty of blood to an extent that is onheard of in the bracing, invigorating climate of England, consequently their energy Is not so great. Our nor'-west days are enough to take it out of anybody. Then, again, as to dress; the girls who have newly arrived here are often those who are travelling, and who can afford to have their costumes made by an experienced dressmaker; and even if they did cot always follow that plan, they would certainly indulge in a tailor-made tweed when globe-trotting. Or they have come out to be married, in which case the trousseau is usually more carefully chosen and made than their ordinary dresses. Even if a family of girls come out with their parents, they invariably have an outfit; so it is hardly fair to compare the girls here in their dress with girls who have probably come out to New Zealand with walking dresses made perhaps by a Rood West End tailor. Bather place them beside the dowdy specimens in most provincial towns in England, and then note the difference; this would be a much more just comparison. It is absurd to compare Christchurch with London or any .of the large fashionable centres at Home.

As to the statements made that the girls do not even know the names of the present Premiers of England and New Zealand, or any particulars about Shakespeare I believe it to be a libel and an insult to our excellent schools, where literature is taught and topics of the day are chosen as subjects for the girls' composition. It is a fact that some girls here pledge themselves to read a portion of some standard work daily. As For dancing, rowing, tennis ; what are they after all but amusements ? Do not the girls here know more about domestic duties and the management of a house than their sisters at Home? In giving more time to these things, are they not wiser and more fitted to take charge of their own when the time comes? Ihere are few girls here who do not assist in the work of their own homes, as wages are high and servants scarce, while in England they of ten know lifctla or nothing of cooking and how to make a house comfortable. There is one thing the writer ha 3 overlooked altogether when criticising our girls so mercilessly, and that is the utter ■want of courtesy and respect they show to their parents, elders and married ladies In general. It is enough to make ones hair turn grey to witness the calm assurance of these self-satisfied fledgings in propounding their own opinions, and holding to them too, in defiance of the maturer judgment of their guardians and more travelled friends. By the way I have noticed a goodly number of prematurely grey heads in New Zealand. This is a far more grievous fault than anything touched upon by your severe critic. Many girls do not stay at home en their mother's receiving day, to "assist her in entertaining her guests. They never think of doing any polite and kind action, voluntarily, for an elderly lady; and as for chaperons, they may sit and shiver, and wait till all hours, until it suits their young ladyships to leave the ball-room. It is positively disgraceful, and has made my blood boil sometimes at the way they are treated, as if were only to be made use of, and subservient to their daughters' will and pleasure. In the streets the young people will scarcely be at the trouble to even give their married lady acquaintances a curt, rude nod, much les3 a graceful, smiling bow, which is the custom of their English sisters. This general want of courtesy and consideration is indeed a defect which especially calls for censure. While striving to set things to rights, why not try and Induce the young men to cultivate their minds a little more; for it seems to mc that their conversation at social gatherings often descends to personalities and compliments, and I have heard a New Zealand girl remark that they also can only talk gossip, and that books and pictures (except, perhaps, just while the art gallery is open) are subjects that it is impossible to converse upon with them. II both sexes were seriously to endeavor to improve their own minds, in doing so they would improve eacb other and raise the whole tone of society, which is quite as important as any physical excellence. With many apologies for taking up your valuable space—Yours, &c, Anglo-Colonial Mother. xo tbs editor of thk press. Sir,—Your leader of Friday must occupy tile unique position of having caused ■ more talk than any leader ever issued from your much discussed paper; for it deals with a subject that women are fhiefly interested in, namely, themselves. It is not often that a leading paper like fours touches on such a delicate subject as the statue of woman in such a bold and determined manner, and there is little doubt the remarks will call forth some dissentient correspondence. I for one entirely uphold the views you expressed. The do-nothing-well, take-me-as-I-am style of a young lady who represents the fairest and most numerous portion of Christchurch society is a type that is certainly inferior to the noble women who worked side by side with the men who built up this fine colony. You say that the Christchurch girls cannot play tennis, tress, or calk as well as their fioglish Bisters. Probably they cannot, but their principal failing in my eyes is the fact that they cannot work as well as their mothers. Even a bachelor can forgive a woman for not talking much, for not indulging in costly dresses, and even for playing a second rate game of tennis; but can he help being disappointed with the stamp of girl who in Cnristchurch society consider themselveseligibleforwives. Are they the sort of girls to help a man in his struggle with the world, to soothe him in his troubles and work aide by side with him in his successes? Are they not rather ladies, as they call themselves, who think •work is only the natural employment of servants and that marriage means that ■ state in which a foolish man guarantees Sα pay their bills and act in the capacity of their male chaperon? If your leader was intended to upset a certain class of Chrietchurch girls from their pedestal of self-complacency, let another leader be devoted to the purpose of showing them how to make themselves useful In life, Ikto to become honest and sensible beings, capable of being pleasant and useful companions for the young men of Christchurch, who also need some one to assist them on their way through life. Hoping to see the power of your paper ■gain wielded in this new direction—l am,&c, Bachbloe.

SO THE EDITOR O» THB PRESS. Sir,—Will yoa allow yet another lance 16 be broken on behalf of the " Maiden all forlorn" who has thus ruthlessly been dragged from her quiet scenes of domestic "Uisa, pilloried before the public gaze, tendered a prey to self reproach for the enormity of her shortcomings, and now become the cynosure ot the contemptuous naascnUne eye from which erstwhile beamed nought but fond and devoted Admiration.

Sir, the responsibility incurred by the author of the now celebrated article is one from which the boldest might shrink aghast. None but the hand of a Goth or a vandal would thus wantonly have torn the "veil enshrouding that refined and dignified self complacency so prominent a characteristic of the Chriatchurch society female. Already into the manly bosoms of young and eligible aspirants to the hands of " maidens of society" has entered the demon of hypercriticism. The publication of your damnatory article has fatally destroyed that feeling of self satisfaction and self esteem so refreshing a manifestion of love's young dream. * That world of ineffable bliss, the only remnant of the divine Eden on earth, .that all sufficing spirit of mutual content, has vanished for ever and aye.

The young man of Chriatchurch has awakened to the fact that his life's happiness is not to be entrusted to the hands of the girl physically unable to accomplish her forty miles a day and then waltz all I night, who can neither paint with the fidelity of a Rosa Bonheur, nor sing with j the charm of a Neilson, who cannot vie with George Eliot in the classic boautv o f her English composition nor perhaps in the flexibility of her morals. Yearning after an undesirable and unattainable Ideal, he spurns the good gift of the gods at. hand, and when the vanishing shadow of the " perfect woman, nobly planned," has finally- and mockingly eluded his grasp will in the days of his solitary and unlovely old bachelorhood bemoan that perversity of spirit which caused him to reject the substance for the shadow. Now, sir, passing over the manifest absurdities contained in your article, we admit it contains a number of those halftruths known to moralists sa the moat dangerous form of untruth. From girls brought up under- totally different sets of conditions the fulfilment ot the same standard is required, the excellence of which is not necessarily admitted by many competent judges.

In accepting Ufe as she finds it, and In adapting herself to surrounding conditions, the colonial society girl (for I presume your article is inclusive) manifests, perhaps, a deeper knowledge of the philosophy of life than is possibly possessed by her English sister, who consumes her existence in tbe pursuit of knowledge, be it in art, literature or science. Too often, alas, the latter awakes to the melancholy fact, like Faust, " That nothing can ever be by mortals learnt full well, I see." Then arises in her the bitter consciousness that the halcyon days of youth are gorie, that the capacity for enjoyment is past, that nothing remains but a dried and withered accumulation of knowledge, as unsatisfying as Dead Sea fruit. In many respects the life led by colonial girls of the better classes contrasts favorably with that of their English compeers. On the whole they are much freer from that insensate and insatiable craving to be ever ascending the social ladder so noticeable in English middle-class society. Mixing more freely with varied classes of society, their sympathies are broader, their class feelings less intense; in fact all round they are less artificial and more human. The colonial girl values her male friends more after their respective merits than for any adventitious surroundings of rank or position. Manages de convenance are almost unknown amongst them, and few colonial girls, be they as much of society as may be, would as shamelessly sell their lives to the highest bidder, as is so openly done by many of their English rivals. Then, again, that deplorable product of English life of the present day, the " fast society pirl," is here conspicuous only by her absence; nor has the writer observed that tendency to the acquirement of masculine habits, from the freer mixing of the sexes, so greatly deplored in the article under discussion. Her influence on the other sex in this respect seems highly beneficial. Should she lack the excessive polish of her European sister, neither does she possess the social hypocrisy so often its attendant. Even thoug i possessed of meano, she cannot be called extravagant in habit, and that inherent and fatal weakness of the female sex in all times, and in all lands, the excessive love of dress, ia perhaps as little developed in her as in any corresponding class. Selfish she cannot be termed, either in money matters or in studying her personal comfort, and willingly does she incur any amount of personal fatigue for the sake of assisting her friends in their amusement or in domestic concerns. Comparatively few colonial girls when married nejrlect their home duties for the sake of pleasure, and although the development of the calling system might be somewhat curtailed, yet the institution of afternoon tea has many advantages. The feminine mind is thereby afforded an opportunity of acquiring a thorough and accurate knowledge of the affairs of her neighbors, and, in the friendly criticism of their actions which often arises, displays a power of analysing human actions and motives not possessed by many of her male detractors. The heart would indeed be cruel which would debar womankind from the innocent delight of a " Kaffee klatsch."

Bound and round our colonial girl fills her allotted place in the scale of creation in a thoroughly useful, ornamental, and fairly dignified manner. Iα many respects she has no intention of emulating her sisters of the motherland, well knowing that such emulation is uncalled for and absurd, thereby showing her fund of common sense. As good and evil are inextricably mingled, it is possible some beneficial effect may arise from the article in question, and it may not hare been written in vain, With the development of a higher" intellectual life will come in due course the cultivation of those arts and sciences, the absence of which is so greatly deplored. Until the arrival.of that epoch we take our society girl as we find her — frank and courteous, ladylike and intelligent, possessing quite enough education to thoroughly appreciate the lofty intellectual t6ne which so often characterises the conversation of her masculine admirers.—Yours, &c, Don Quixote. Christchurch, 25th April, 1891. TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —As one who, having much travelled, has seen the English girl under every variety of climate, and in all sorts of society, I think the writer of your article over-severe in his estimate of her Christchurch sister. But admitting—by way of argument only—the justice of your criticism, whose fault is it ? Undoubtedly that of the men. Women will always rise to the level of their surroundings, rarely above them. When the average girl finds that her male friends take an interest in something besides small talk and gossip, when she finds they don't care for secondhand opinions, when she finds that they leave the slang and "shop" of their business or professions behind them as they enter ladies' society, she will then, I firmly believe, prove equal to the emergency, and fully able to meet any demand made upon her.—l am, &c, Observer. TO TSS EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sib,—Ever since I read your leader in this morning's issue I have been trying to divine its object, or by whom it was written, as it is so different to your usual style., I have arrived at the following conclusion—that it is either written by a new arrival, who does not know much of our girls, or that a desire to provoke correspondence in a slack time is the object for which it was inserted. The writer has evidently never heard of our ladies' mountaineering parties, where the girls have walked all day, and succeeded in attaining a height of several thousand feet, or of the many walking picnics, which at certain seasons of the year are of almost weekly occurrence, anil frequently exceed a distance of fifteen miles in all. N The girls who undertake these expeditions are to be seen at all large balls, and, consequently, may be said to " move in what they are pleased to call society," and at these balls, as far as my experience goes, dance far better than the generality of girls in England. You may possibly ask what is my experience? Well, I have lived for a quarter of a century in different parts of England, including London, and have been fourteen years in the colony, and from the nature of my occupation, I meet constantly a very large proportion of the English travelling public, not only those who come out for a visit, commonly called " globe trotters," but those who come ont to settle, so that I not only have the benefit of my past knowledge of English girls, but I have the advantage of being able to compare those of the prssent day with the colonial girls around mc, and I must confess I am of the opinion that New Zealand girls compare favorably with their English sisters, both as regards a tasteful and well-fitting costume and also as possessing an easy unaffected (manner, which renders them pleasant companions to converse with. 1 am also qualified to judge of their tennis powers, and confidently assert that Christchurch could bold its own with almost any provincial town in England of a similar size both in ladies' and gentlemen's matches. As regards rowing, who has not heard of the Christchurch Ladies' Bowing Club, and of the boat races held under its auspices} If the writer of your leader has found our girls difficult to converse with on topics relating to the outer world, he should bear in mind| that they do not get the London daily papers every morning as they do in most of the provincial towns in England.—l am, &c, Fair Flat. Chrietchurch, 24th ApriL