THE WOMEN'S CORNER.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15917, 2 June 1917, Page 10

THE WOMEN'S CORNER.

Matter for insertion in this column should be addressed to tho Lady Editor, and should bo fullv authenticated. Mrs R. W. Anderson, Colombo street, has been spending a few days in Dunedin. Mrs Me Alpine (Jit. "White) has l>o?n iu town for a few days, and left yesterday for Waitaki. Miss "Webster (Dunedin) passed through Christchurch last night on i'cr way" to Wellington. Mrs Chaytor Miles (Timaru) is visiting her daughter, Mrs Holmes (Rakain). Mrs G. Jameson and Miss Jameson (Papanui) have returned from a visit to Duuedin. ■Mr and Mrs Saute!! (Cashmere Hills) are on a visit to the North Island. Mrs P. C. Femvick and family have returned to Christchureh after 'spending the holidays at their cottagc at Clifton. Mrs D. D. Macfarlane (Lyndon) is in town lor a few days. Mrs Walter Macfarlane (Kaiwara) has taken Mr Stewart Blackburnc's liouso in Holies ton avenue for the winter months. Mr and Mrs Donald McLean are the guests of Mr r.nd Mrs Hamish McLean (Mt. Ilutt). ; Mrs K. V. Palmer and Miss P. Palmer have returned to Gisborne. Miss Maud Tabart accompanied them. Mrs Stevens, president of tho Xcw Brighton brancli of the "Women's National Reserve, has arranged for the members to provide delicacies for the soldiers at the Christcburch Hospital to-day. Gifts may be left with Mrs E. Clark, Sea View road, up to !j o'clock this afternoon. At the last meeting of tho Otago University Council, Miss Winifred Chapman/of Opnwa, Christchurch, was awarded a- diploma iii home science. Miss Chapman is an old girl of the Christchurch Girls' High School, and was the first student to go to Dunedin for. the higher course in homo science, where she has been very successful in chemistry, gaining first class in 'hat subject.

[ Mr and Mrs Hope (Raineliff), -who have been staying at the United Serj vico Hotel, left yesterday. Mr and Mrs Hugh Ensor and Miss Ellis (Rakaliuri) are in town. The Countess of Glasgow and hfcr children arrived in England in March last, and have gone to Ivelbum. Fair lie, states the "British Australasian." NEEDLES AND PINS. . "Wo lieard some time ago that there was a threatened shortage of hairpins; now pins and needles are also in the "little list" of things which, it is to be feared, will ho very much missed. Some of the leading houses in Sydney have received advice from their agents in England that the munition authorities will not allow tlio export of any more of .these goods. . The genesis of the hairpin is uio thorn used to this day by peasant women in Upper Egypt. *In Queen Anne's time hairpins of bent wire were used. Someone points out that wooden _ pins may be substituted _ for tho ordinary ones, while hairpins nowadays are sometimes made of horn and compressed milk. Will pins ever' get so rare again that the old expression, "pin money," will come to .have its former literal meaning?. RAFFIA WORK. Raffia work" is being revived in Sydney. Raffia, sometimes called "bast, is known to gardeners who use it in a cheap, coarse form to tio up their plants. It is a kind of filmy skin from a certain palm leaf, the best- kind coming from Madagascar. It is used in conjunction with cane to make baskets. It seems that thero is a largo held in Australia for vegetable dyes suitable for the rnffia.' Miss. Byrne, of Sydney, a raffia worker, gets a charming yellow effect by using eucalyptus leaves" The Germans in Australia used to make a good dye out of prickly pear. The latest craze is to have the raffia dved to match the chief note of colour in a room. In this work tl.e foundation is cane, which is worked _over bv raffia. The latter is threaded through the needle as if it were fcotton and t.he design worked on the sqi'tire like the old-fnshioned sample. Tea trays are also made in raffia work. WOMEN AND' THE "WA l '. TO TIIF. EDITOR OP "THE PRESS. 1 ' Sir, —I think your ladv readers will be greatly interested and perhaps inspired by. an extract from a letter I received this week from my son, who is now in the Flying School at Oxford. "I had a letter from J —— the other day. I told you that she was working in tho country. Well, she says in her letter that she is working threo horses in a cultivator and that she has . to climl> on to the manger to put their collars on. I can quite believe it. Slio is about oft 3in, if that." To appreciate all that this means your readers would need to know J . She is the daughter of a very wealthy London oarrister, and has lived from childhood a luxurious city life. She is not _ a horsey woman and has not hunted, her knowledge of horses being limited to lessons in tho riding school and decorous rides in tho London suburbs and parks, and I question if prior to the war she had ever bridled or saddled a horso in her life. By the same mail I received a letter from this girl's aunt, wljP) speaking of her daughter, says: "M has just come in very tired. She lias been planting potatoes in the hospital grounds." Bravo! Britain's daughters.—Yours, etc.. LEONARD M. ISITT. Christchurch, Juno Ist.