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Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21991, 15 January 1937, Page 10

An observant young woman who is able to put at least some of her impressions of the Land of the Chrysanthemum into interesting sequence is Mrs John Dunlop, of Dunedin, who is visiting Japan. Writing to a friend from Yokohama, after an interesting visit to Kobe, Mrs Dunlop says that she never encountered in her life such cosmopolitan crowds of people as she did at Kobe. At the Oriental Hotel there she encountered English, American, French, German, Dutch, Belgian, Italian, Russian, Swiss, Indian, Danish, Chinese, and Japanese. It seemed as though all the world had come to buy from Japan and to drink in her many charms. "I was surprised to find the large cities of Japan so west irnised," wrote Mrs Dunlop. "Most of the men . wear European clothes, but, generally speaking, the women adhere to the kimono and obis (big bows worn at the back), . and usually carry paper sunshades. They never wear hats, and the sunshades serve as umbrellas when it rains. What was most interesting to learn was that there is a different style of hairdressing for each age—one for the schoolgirl, the flapper, the bride, the mother, etc., so that you can tell exactly what a woman is by the way she does her hair." An example of how tuition in handwork aided children in improving their general knowledge was given by the Minister for Education (the Hon. P. Fraser) at a meeting of the Southland High Schools Board. He knew of a case, the Minister said, where a girl had been laughed at by her fellow pupils because of her mental dullness at school work. One day, however, her teacher discovered that she could draw. . He praised her -work, and fostered her talent until she was the best - artist in the school. This won for her the admiration of the other pupils and increased her own self-respect. Her work in other directions became steadily better and she was soon far from being as backward as she bad been. _