SOCIAL AND PERSONAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 157, 27 March 1908, Page 3

SOCIAL AND PERSONAL.

Most of the sceial interest of the next few days will centre round the polo tournriment. It begins to-morrow, and 111 the afternoon Miss Skerrett is providing the afternoon tea. On tjio following Friday, Air. Coate-s is giving a dance in the Sydney Street Schoolroom in honour' of tho visiting teams, and it is rumoured that during the same week another dance will be given for tho same purpose. ' Mr. Leo S. Fanning, a popular Wellington (journalist,., and -a member of- the literary staff of the " Evening Post,"'was married at, Wanganui, on Monday last, to Miss Jessie Edmo'ndstone, who was formerly 011 the nursing stall of tho Wellington Hospital. Miss Cecilia Yelverton, who died at her room in Bolton Street, on .Wednesday, was well known' to. the many friends of. the late Mr. Batkin, whoso Housekeeper she was for several years. After his death she went to live in Bolton Street, and it was there she died after a' few clays', acute ■ illness. • Miss ■ Yelverton was recognised by her. friends as being one of the most widely read women in Wellington. y St, Petet's Church, Waipawa, -was recently the scene of a very pretty wedding, when Miss I ,Olive Gwendolyn Todd, youngest daughter of Dr: Alex. Todd, M.D.,was marriedito Mr. Hercules Sandford Burleigh, youngest son of the late Captain'Burleigh, R.N., Bay of Islands: Tho : - Rev. Canon / Eccles, of Woodville, was the officiating clergyman. - The .mother's, meeting to bo held 411 the Vivian Streot Baptist School this afternoon will be addressed by Mrs. T. W[. Hislop. , At, the Masonic Hall this evening, a dance is to b'o held in aid of the building fund of .the Unitarian Church, which it is intended to erect.in Street. - •/.'• v; "WHAT IS BEING DONE IN ENGLAND." The Children's Bill, introduced into the House of Commons last month by Mr. Herbert Samuel, revises the existing legislation affecting children, and adds somo fresh and very important provisions, and at , every point which'it touches is likely to do' greatgood. : .

The new Bill deals drastically with juvenile smoking, which'it makes'an offence. In this it follows the precodent set by 33 American States, which have also legislated against juvenilo smoking, and by Norway, where the sale of tobacco'to the young is forbidden. Under Mr. Samuel's Bill the sale of cigarottes 'and cigarette-papers to children under 16 will bo prohibited, and • small boys who smoke in public will have their tobacco confiscated by the police. In Germany, it may be noted,, juvenile smoking is put down by the common sonso of the population, and any boy . who ventured to air his talent for puffing ci-; garottes in tho'streets would speedily nave' his cigarette dashed from his iiiouth_ by tho first working-man he met. Remembering how premature smoking stunts tho growth and development,/ remembering y'also ,/that,the' Committee on Physical ..:',De'geritrat;oh >Jrgcom-1 mended that it should bo Tigovously 'slippressed,' .there is causo for legitimate/satis-, faction at Another .section of the Bill deals with the overlaying of children,'which, as is well known, is a commbri cause, of. death'-to,, infants. In-England, according to MK Schrcoder, the Deputy-Coronor of tho Central district of London, 1400 children are annually sinothored from overlaying. Herd, again, ■ foreign precedent is followed. In >Gormany it is an olfenco-'for'children'under'l2 months old to sleep in tho same bed with tho jiarents.; and this sensible law has saved the lives of thousands of infants.' Not less important -aro the provisions to enforce tho proper protection of fireplaces.' 11l a single week.last year there wero no fewer - thair I'3-i inquests upon children whose deaths wero duo entirely to tlio fact that tho fire was not adequately guarded. The proposal to assist and encour-, ago the admirable societies for preventing cruelty to,children are equally good. . ■ ' i Tho treatment of child offenders and criminals is ameliorated. Tho special children?scourts, which:. exist ;.in, Birmingham and have there proved a success, are to bo gonerally introduced, and_ children's magistrates are to bo appointed in London wlio.will .visit the .various courts- in,, succession J 11 ?" prisonnient in the-case , of' children will, as tar as is possible, be abolished. But it is satisfactoryl to observe that tho careless and aioglectful parent, who allows his child to growup to a lifo of crime, is not to escape scotfroe. 'The, number of .'those -who; try to. shift their responsibilities to the shoulders of the State or the magistrate ,is yearly increasing," ;and'the time has come fio remind such people of: their duty, i If it is not just to visit tho sins'of the parents unon the childron, it is ''just: and pohtic:to hold tho parents-in some tlegreo ' responsible for' tho offences of his young offspring, and such a course will strengthen, not weaken tho family. If the provisions 'bo wisely, firmly, and tactfully carried out, they wjli raise tho character of the 'Submerged tenth," make for tho good of the British nation, and, provo a real benefit to the helpless-children.—"Daily Mail.'.' ; '.t