SOCIAL AND PERSONAL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 78, 27 December 1918, Page 2

SOCIAL AND PERSONAL

Miss Cicely Tnvemer, who has been staying with Ills. Alex Crawford at Mirumar, has returned to liungitikei. llr. and Mrs. H. M. Nicolson, of Otaki, are visiting Mrs. Nicolson at "Melverton," Taratahi, Mr. and Mj.s. E, M'Kenzie, of Carterton, are spending a holiday in Napier. Dr. and Mrs. Young are at lleretaunga for the holidays. Captain and Mrs. Fussell, of Fenthe'ston, aro visiting Christehurch. Mord has been received from the workers connected with the interdenominational Zenana Mission in India, by Miss Elsie Liily, their organising secretary in New Zealand, to the effect that plague and famine are rife in the Bombay Presidency, whore the '.Mission has "many agencies—educational, medical, and industrial—nt work. Miss Fuleher, who is in charge of the orphan homes in the city of Sholapur, writes: "In our district 300 people are dying daily from our mystery plague, and numbers of children are being left orphans. Babies are paring into our homes. .Miss RadelifTe, Miss Morgan, and fifty children are down, and our matron has just died. In vain I refuse to take moro babies in." Donations to the relief fund will be acknowledged on receipt bv Miss E. K. I,illy organising secretary, 301 Armagh Street,' Linwood.

The matron of the Momc for the Aged Needy (Miss Mackay) acknowledges the receipt of Christmas gifts for the home from the following:—The Mayoress (Mrs. Luke), Lady Stout, Mrs. Nathan, '.Mrs. Godber, Cuba Street; Mr. Rowley, U a . whiti Terrace, Kelburn; Mrs. I'nuken, Carlton Hotel, Willis Street; To Aro Meat Co., Cuba Street; several kind ladies who Imve tailed fbe inmates liberally nt this season for some years past, and also a lady who Ins given a gift to every inmate-in the home.

Mrs. William Helming (Auckland) who lias for some considerable time been in charge of the Now Zealand .Lady Drivers Motor Trunsport Section at Horachurch, has decided to continua her ivork until the termination of the war. Jler husband, Second-Lieutenant William Kenning, JI.C., N.Z.1!.8., died at the 56th Casually Clearing Station in France on September 13. He was badly wounded on the previous day'while leading 1 an attack against llio eiifciny, Lieutenant Heliniug; left- New Zealand r.s a sergeant with the Twelfth Reinforcement, nmt went to England for his commission after coming through the lighting at I'asschendaele in Octobur, 1917. lie returned to I ranee in the following April, and in July received the (Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in the field, fie was wounded in August, but would not leave his battalion. .Before going to England Mrs. Henning spent over a year working at hospitals in Sues', and Cairo. It is now sixteen months since she took charge of the Motor Transport Depot at llornchurch, and she finds the work extremelyinteresting.

Jfuch of the naughtiness attributed to children is due to the unnntural state of tension to' which, they are subjected during school hours (said Mrs. Sydney Butler in the course of a lecture iii Auckland). All their energies- are drilled into ecmplctc-quiescence. When the spontaneous energies of the child are blocked in their natural course, they will make new outlets for themselves,' lawless outlets if uo others are available, l'n our schools it is the fenohor who shows the activity and the initiative, the child is passive .Hid receptive. The striking results shown to the world by (he experiments of Madame Montess'ori' have given us a. cluo at last to the uindeirstanding of child nnturft. She has shown' that u child's growth comes from within and is evolved by himself. Under her system tho child is: supervised, not directed. Whero understood when applied no.failuro has ever been recorded. In an atmosphere of freedom and nifection a child develops ama/.ingly, iioth intellectually and spiritually. The motive-power in,our education (it present is competition. A new order of things is arising and the keynote must now De co-opera-tion. The child does his work through fear; he must now do it through love. Wo must approach tho child from the standpoint of the innate goodness within him. So many teachers, full of enthußiaspi for the new methods, are hindered by the older conservative heads of schools. Then the conditions in our schools must change before much can be done. AVe must have greater iloor space and smaller classes. The children must be. 'trusted more and their personalities taken into account. They must be studied and co-operated with. We shall find they do 'begin to co-operate when we set aside the patrinrchiul conception of the home and school, and adopt the fraternal.

There tire more ways than one of making a man lit. The obvious mctlukt is not always the best, writes a correspondent in the "Daily Jlail." It. is, for instance, the principle of disguising tho pill in a spoonful of jam which ynu see applied in the Army in conncction with that important phase cf training, "Physical Jerks," as Tommy calls it. In the convalescent camp "somewhere in France" from which I write, "P.T." is an important, factor. Each morning, after the col-J( el's inspection, to the accompaniment of a lively march played by tho drum and fife or military band (we have both, -and a "ripping" orchestra as well, composed of convalescent Tommies) wc proceed to a well-chosen snot, nnd, under capable instructors, indulge in nil kinds of "sporty" pastimes. The latest innovation here is teaching Tomniy to dance. It may sound silly, perhaps, but it is really very sensible. You should hava heard the exclamations on the first morning when -men who a few days previously hnd been fighting German's were lined up in pairs and informed by the instructor that he was about to teach them the "St. Paul Twostep"! Then the fun begaii! "One, two! One, two, three!" while Tommy struggled to master tin* • movements. "If Merry' came over now lie would say that: we had gone stark, staring mad," remarked one man. "Pavlova isn't in il!" exclaimed another. Tommy's sense of humour was tickled by his own capers just a-s much as by those of his pals. Now he is'becoming an expert dancer, and, without feeling that his dignity is in any way compromised, takes his partner for the twostep nnd dances to the accompaniment of the band. * r e is now asking for "a few 1 Warns'!'"

Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Moore, Kelburri, and lliss M. Packer, Wellington, are the' guests of Mr. and Mrs. (J. Moore, Eldersheld, Woodend. Miss Edith Howes is visiting Dunedin, and will go on to I he scuthern lake:. Miss E. Winder is visiting Christeluircli. ... Miss 31. Lorimer, of Xolson Girls' College, intends to spend a holiday at Mount Cook. ' Miss 11.l 1 . de M. Prendergasf. uud Miss G. SI, Campbell arc visiting Christ-' church. Miss 0. Webster, after a. short stay in Christchnrch, lias gone on to Hanmer. Amongst holiday visitors to the glacier region of the Southern Alps are Aliss M. Dyer, J. Howden, K. Ramsay, and the Misses Holm^ Quiet in manner and charming, a lover of home and family life, Mrs. John English, the now Lady Mayoress of Sydney, will soon win her way to popularity (says the Sydnev "Sun"). Mrs, English's' family associations stretch back to thn first days of the founding of Australia: She was before her marriage Miss Jane Devine, daughter of Mr. John Devine, who reft Liverpool for Australia in order to claim the Devine estates. His nnclo was one of tho officials who came to Australia to assist Governor Phillip to found the colony. As a reward for his services lie was "'rallied an estate which practically took in the wliolo of Newtown, stretching from where the Deaf and Dumb Asvlum is now lo' St. Peters's Bridge. He lived until ho was 10!) years' old. and ten years before his. death he was attacked by bushrangers at. Newtown and left for dead. He recovered, and was looked after bv a licket-of-lenve man, to whom ho had l>een kind, nnd he gave the estate nwavtoliim. Mrs. English's father, in pursuit of a elnim to the estate, instituted a law suit which became one of tho'most famous in the annals of Australian Courts. The case was before the Courts for thirteen years, and finally went to the Privy Council. But the Devine family did not get the estate bacj:. The tieket-of-leave man had bartered it for. bottles of rum. A book has been written on the starv. The Lady Mayoress was born nt Newton on the-estate in dispute; but the family afterwards moved to Apnin, where Jlr. John Devine nnd Mr. Jack Want became life-long friends. Mrs. English's Rood work has been chiefly on behalf of orphanages and children.