SOCIAL AND PERSONAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 230, 22 June 1908, Page 5

SOCIAL AND PERSONAL.

For some months past the Wellington Private Nurses Association has .been trying to find a houso suitable for a Nurses' Hostel, which is urgently required by the Association, and has now taken a largo house in Upper Willis Strict. ■ On Wednesday last, at Fcatherston, Mr. Brassil, ■of Masterton, was married to Miss Alice Hopwood of the samo town. The officiating minister was the Rev. J. N. Buttle. Mrs. J. A. M'Grath, who has on account of ill-health been for an extended visit to her homo" in' Victoria, and to Sydney, has returned to' Wellington. A children's party was given by her at her homo in Austin Street to celebrate' the return of her little daughter May, who accompanied her on her travols. A number of children were present and spent a delightful aftornoon.

Whether it is the introduction of the penny pdstcard, or tho telephone., that is responsible for the distinct failure in youn2 girls 'and boys in the art of letter-writing, is a question that is troubling tho minds of tho elder generation (says a writer in the "Australasian"). Parents with sons or daughters''away from home complain that they learn- little or nothing from tho irregular correspondence of their offspring, and to tho children themselves, whethor of. age or still in the schoolroom, these weekly let- . tors home are. often looked upon as a necessury, but troublesome, duty—"the sooner over tho better." Jri the early days, when tho minimum charge for transmission by post was sixpence a letter, our grandfathers aiid grandmothers wroto long accounts of their doings. Tho excuse so often tendered, "lack of news," is a very flimsy one, for the most unevontrul life is full of tho details, so dear to a mother's heart, and the more assurance that the absentoe is well, though framed by the most elaborate of postcards, is scarcely worthy of transmission.. Well-written letters breach over tho gulf formed by distance or time, but few families keep up tho regular, old-fashioned correspondence which includes the details of life. _ "I will write when I have something to write about" wero tho parting words of an eldor son, and now the •• envelope that bears his handwriting is received with trepidation, since onco it contained news of a broken leg, another time it begged for a money loan, while a third contained ; news of the writor's removal to a foreign land.