I would rather have a big burden and a strong back than a weak back and a caddie to carry liKes luggage.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 142, 15 December 1908, Page 9

I would rather have a big burden and a strong back than a weak back and a caddie to carry liKes luggage.

Mrs. Fulton goes to Palmerston North on Saturday, to stay for a week with her sister, Mra. Waldegrave. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Nathan are expected home from Rotorua on Tuesday. Mrs. Rhodes, oi the Grange, intends to spend some weaks in the South. Island. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, of Melbourne, who have been staying in Wellington, have taken Professor Scott's house in Dunedin, and left yesterday for the South. Mrs. CMord-Godden has just completed a fine picture which is on vfew with, other of her works, at her studio. It is called, "Refuge," and is a replica of a picture which was hung in the French Salon, and which earned for the artist praise even from the great Julien, who is chary, in the extreme, of making compliments. The subject gives food for thought, quite apart fro"m the fine execution. A young girl, exquisitely and delicately proportioned, leans with clasped hands above her head in an t attitude of despair, against a wall on which hangs a crucifix. The flesh tints are beautiful, the hair a glory of golden au- ' bum, and the simple satin frock and [ filmy lace wonderfully painted. Tho picture has the same subtle attraction for t-he imaginative as the picture of a hilly road, with a hidden valley beyond. One longs to mount the top and see the beauties that lie below, just as one desires to see the averted face of the girl in Mrs. Clifford-Godden's picture. 'I.he artist's sister was her model. Other new pictures hang on the walls of the studio — characteristic sketches of Wellington, picturesque studies of English peasantlife, and charming "bits" of Irish scenery, full of the tender humid colouring that belongs to that lands of smiles and tears. An important addition to the exhibition is a three-quarter life-size study of a man, done in a> competition lasting a fortnight, of Julien's pupils, five studios competing, three of these studies for women and two • for men. Mrs. Clifi'ord-Godden — then Miss Augusta Handcock — was placed first of the! wo-men-painters for her striking work! Here are two notices, from the London Times, which, in fa-ce of the servant -xctdty in New Zealand, will be read with interest: "On me 61st October, at St. Andrew's Vicarage, Watford, after an operation for appendicitis, Jessie Martha Stanley, aged 46, the friend and faithiu) servant lor 32 years .of Canon and Mrs. Rith and family." "On the 2nd of November, 1908, Tunbridge Wells, Helen Shaw, aged 85. For 67 years the nurse and esteemed friend of the late Robert Bruce Ronald, hIS parents aiid his children." Queen Wilhelmina, says the Gentlewoman, who has recently started a Bible-class, which is attended by her entire household, is one of the many Royal votaries of, the simple life. Year in, year out, she rises at 7 a.m., then having had her eau de Cologne bath, spends but little time over her simple toilette. Having read her letters, she* goes through her morning papers herself, as she roes not believe in mutilated paragraphs, or "clippings." By two o'clock she is ready to receive her Ministers of State, with whom she does not hesitate to differ if their views do not coincide with her own. Dinner, an olaboration of some eight courses, is the only ostentatious repast of the day, and by 10.30, like most of her compatriots, Queen Wilhelmina has retired for tht night. The' same paper has a striking portrait of the first Lady Mayor ever elected in England. High Wycombe, in Bucking hamshire, has appointed this remarkable woman, whu frfr years has worked strenuously m the cause of higher education for women, and for the last year has sat as councillor, its Mayor. Several New Zealand girls »aye been educated at Wycombe Abbey School, which she established. In her girlhood, when education for women was at a very low standard, she spent three years at Queen's College. But at fifteen 'years of age her family moved to the country, and all instruction ceased. Her next school venture was residence at a board-ing-school, and after that a period of home life, devoted to teaching her younger brother and sisters, and making their clothes. Suddenly came the 1 first great step in hpr educational career, when her father, a clergyman, told ncr of Miss Emily Davies's intention oi" starting a women's college at Cambridge. Miss Dove passed the entrance examination and was enrolled as a scholar. After a successful university career she went as science mistress to Cheltenham under Miss Beale, later she joined the staff at the opening of St. Leonard's School at St. Andrews ; in 1882 she became headmistress, and held that position for fourteen years. From St. Andrew's she went to High Wycombe, and , put into execution her bold ambition to establish in England a school on the lines of St. Andrews, and Wycombe Abbey School, with its two hundred and forty pupils, is the splendid realisation of her ambition. Miss Dove has always been a pioneer. She was one of the first three ladies privileged to attend university lectures with the undergraduates ; she was the first student to enter the new building at Girton ; and she was one of the first twelve students jvho attended the Women's College at Cambridge. Mrs. Cornwallis West, better known as Lady Randolph Churchill, is quick to enter the lists in defence of society from the attack of Mrs. Astor (notes the Argonaut). She has nothing startlingly new to say. She dismisses " smart sets " from all consideration on the ground that they do not belong to society, and she asks us not to judge a caste or a class from the antics of a few people wh » would like to belong to it, but who do not actually find themselves within the circle. Society, the true society, is made up of very exclusive and very cultured' people, who detest seeing their names in print, and frown severely upon 'whatever smacks of publicity. But Mr&. Cornwallis West has something to say in the way of gentle stricture. She does not like the various social " sets," each one being a law unto itself and looking down upon all others as inferior. Then, again, she thinks that American society women should take an interest in politics and serious occupations of that kind. It is said that exclusiveness is peculiarly necessary to American society if it is nob to be quite overrun by the parvenu, and to ihis Mrs. Cornwallis West says : — "Perhaps if they opened their doors a Jittle wider their influence, not to say example, might bo felt. In England society is easier of access than in any other place in the world, being built on broader and more solid foundations, and a long-established order of things has made people less apprehensive of having their privileges encroached upon or their position shaken, and they can afford to receive whom they please." English society being less exclusive, "individual merit is more apj?teciated thaa rank or. fpr.tu.ne i l i &ntl

"beauty and charm in a woman and J brains and good-fellowship in a man \ take them where dull duchesses and rich bores seek in vain to enter." The men and women of New York are quarrelling about their respective hats, and exchanging epithets the reverse of complimentary. The charge against the feminine headgear is simply that it is a public nuisance and incompatible with overcrowded civilisation. To this the women reply — a little weakly, it must be ronfessed (says one. American writer) — that men who wear green hats are not entitled to express, or even to possess, any opinion upon any subject under the sun. Although why the simple fact that some men's hats are of an undesirable colour should disqualify in this way is not very clear. Only a small number of men are wearing the green hats, and even a green hat is of no different size or shape to | one that is blade or brown. The writer continues : — Whereas the hats of the women tend to make street locomotion impossible, they are an intolerable discomfort in public conveyances, they are actually dangerous when they are made of a stiff material, and they are hideous to. the last degree. Now a green hat may be hideous— it probably is— but this charge does not come gracefully from women, who, in matters of costume, seem to have no sense of beauty whatever, nor a desire for it. There are some women who would like to rebel if they could. Just as it is impossible to indict a nation, so also is it impossible to indict a sex, because there are always some who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Witness, for example, the agonised woman who writes to"* the New York Times under the imposing pseudonym of "A Woman Who Will Not Be Made a Freak." She points out that the so-called "Directoire" hat was first introduced at a time when the average woman did not wear a hat at all, and the few who adopted the broad-brimmed headgear wore it only in their coaches. Sh& then continues : — "And can not you say a word to tho dealers.' 1 spent an hour in one of the best millinery parlours of the city last week, tried on every specimen presented to me, and came home hatless and disgusted. It was not price that interfered with a purchase. I told the saleswoman that I could not afford to go- to andi from my daily business in a cab ; I must use the. public conveyances, and, as 1 pay only one fare, 'I could not take up so much room as her hats would ! require. She looked amazed, and, I have no doubt, thought me something less than idiotic. I was told that unless I took one I would not be 'modishly' attired. My buAinesi and surroundings require that I dress welL Can you see my dilemma? When I gave an order to have one specially made i was greeted with a smile of pity tor my ignorance. Help us out ; keep at it, if it takes all winter. Some of us are sensible."