WOMEN IN PRINT.

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 83, 7 April 1924, Page 9

WOMEN IN PRINT.

Mrs. Elder, of Havelock North, is in Wellington at present to meet her son Uv. Norman Elder, who i s returning N e wZ^td foraViSittohishomei" Miss Tessa Reading, lately o f Christchurch, is visiting Mrs.. Wilton, at Oriental Bay. Mrs. Eric Shaw of New Plymouth. i 6 m town to meet Mrs. S. Shaw and Miss Olivia Shaw, who are returning from an overseas trip by the Ruahine. due in Wellington to-day. Mrs Skelley/of Croydon Diocesan School ,s in town visiting'her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rapley, of Ellice-st. „ Dr U r a^ rs- packer, who were yisiting Wellington last week, have returned to Christchurch, Mrs. T. J. Bourke, of Wellington, being their guest. Mrs Duncan M'Kay and Miss M"Kay, pf Wellington, are visiting Auckland. Mr. and Mrs. M. A. Carr have returned to Wellington after a visit,to Auckland. Miss A. Dpwnie Stewart, of Hill street. Wellington, has been visiting Wanganui! Mr. and Mrs. J, Studholme, of Christchurch, are in Wellington at.present. Mrs. Barnicoat, Wellington, is visiting Christchurch. Among the passengers leaving for a visit to England by the lonic will be Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Herdman and the Misses L. and F. Herdman. of Christchurch. Mrs. Patterson, Hawkes Bay, is the guest of Mrs. Whito, Hobson street. Miss M. Bishop, of Christchurch/ is visiting Wellington. I Hostesses for the week at the Community Club will be as follow .-—This evening, Wellington South Nursing I Division; Tuesday, Mrs! Dalrymple; ! Wednesday, Mrs. Longley; Thursday, Mrs. Murphy; Friday, Mrs. A. Toogood; Saturday, Mrs. G. li. Butler; Monday, Mrs. W. D. Robinson. A correspondent who has difficulty in Setting ordinary toffee "just right" asks for full directions, particularly of the cooking of the sweet. Hers is apt to become streaky or sugary. Directions are also asked for making lemon sponge (not Spanish cream), in order to ensure the whipped part from sinking to the bottom of the mould when cooling. Invitations'"\ are issued for a Tournament Ball, to be held under the auspices of the Victoria University College at Easter time, in the Town Hall. Mr. R. R. T. Young is the convener of the committee. The ball should be an exceptionally interesting one, and being held at holiday time will probably be thoroughly appreciated by the dancers of Wellington. The engagement is announced of Miss Alice Bertha Clarke, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Campbell Clarke, of Wellington, to Mr. Philip William Thomas Kime, only son bi the late Mr. Philip Graburn Kime, and Mrs. Lily Kime, of London. The matron of the Hospital desires to I acknowledge with thanks the following gifts: —lllustrated papers and magazines, i Messrs. E.- W. Mills, Mr. H. E. Evans, Anonymous (Mr. M'Nce, for nurses);! periodicals, Mona and Maysie Mulford (Khandallah). Children's Ward: 2 cases of apples, Mr. -Van Staveren; children's garments, Mrs. Rutherford (Pirio street); lollies^ Mr.. Burnett; two cases of apples, Mr. Franklin. Ewart Ward: Flowers, Sunshine Committee*, per Mr. Oakey; books, Mr. Mailer"; magazines, Mrs. Cresswell. The matron wishes to thank Mrs. M'Cartie and Mr. Oakey for the very enjoyable concerts arranged*tiy them for the enjoyment of patients. A small bazaar in aid of Dr. Barnardo's Homes, arranged by Mrs. Pack, was held at her residence, The Crescent, Roseneath, on Saturday afternoon.' The effort was most succesful, and as a result the homes will benefit to the extent of £7, this sum being realised from the sale of cakes, sweets, and fancy goods. These efforts are very greatly appreciated by the governors of the homes, which are doing so much for destitute homes.. _ The- fortnightly meeting of the Wellington South Nursing Division was held last week, when a large number of members and friends listened with the greatest interest to a lecture given by Dr. Line, Divisional Surgeon, on the subject, "A Ramble Through the Body." The lecturer covered very comprehensively the chief structures and functions of the body, illustrating his subject by reference to Yaggy's Chart. At the close of the'lecture a number of questions were asked, and the doctor was heartily thanked for his splendid address. Major Vine, the newly-appointed District Officer, was present, and spoke of the work of the division in complimentary terms. Colonel G; Barclay, Deputy-Chief-Com-missioner for New. Zealand, of. the St. John Ambulance Brigade, has approved of the promotion of Miss Frances L. Cooper to the position of district officer of the Canterbury, .Nelson, Marlborough, and West Coast'district of the brigade. Captain ~ Vernon A. Norrish, formerly divisional superintendent of the Rangiora Ambulance Division of the brigade, has been appointed tq; fill Miss Cooper's former position 'of corps' secretary and treasurer of the Christchurch Corps. - ."'■■• It might be said that'nothing has been emitted from the last numbers of Weldon's Journal, those for ladies and chil.dren, in the way of information about clothing, toilet, housework, needlework, and domesticity generally. Some excellent patterns are given, with artistic embroidery .transfers as well. Many hints, from a wide experience of dressmaking and housewifery are given, all ot which are recommended by expert people. The. "Women's Leader" touches again ou the question of mothers' pensions to give some curious facts regarding the amounts awarded women in England atpresent under the unpleasant poor law i system. These amounts differ considerably according to locality, as- they are left to. local boards. Thus while in Yorkshire the . necessitous mother may h.i granted twenty-three shillings a week for one child, in another Midland district there may be only ten shillings for seven children! Between those two extremes there, is much variation. So much is this poor law system disliked however that only 28 per cent, of the Women who could claim pensions and who would be the better of them ever do so. The rest ! lla"fP . ro™e!»°*\witk detriment to the health of their fanuhes. In referring to the need of a Parliamentary measure' M,« Eleanor-Rathbone po i,j s ZtZi when all the children are of school a-e, it should be taken into considerate, that the wulowed mother i s then free to add something to her i ncome . If t| with, the cost need not, be much. Belgium, J-ranee, and Austria, we know have enorced a certain industrial scheme. It is cunous to note that France pay a proporlKmatcly more, „0 1, lwg L than we do for the ?econrl -„,l <i •

The Phmket Society is firing the imagination. Its work is bein<; talked about everywhere. A Sydney man, casting about recently for a place in which to spend a holiday, picked Dunedin, being largely influenced in that choice by the fact that Dunedin is the headquarters and place of origin of the Plunket Society, and he thought it would t be satisfactory to learn here something about the operations, the subject being one that interested him. He took his passage by the Chinese steamer Ling Nam, a 6000 ton vessel that trades from Hong Kong to Brisbane, Sydney, and Wellington, and then goes on to Panama, afterwards to South America. On the voyage to Wellington he talked with a Chilian copper-mine manager, who was going bank to Chili with his wife. This lady is a Chilian who does-.not speak English. The conversation one day centred on the Chilian's baby. and the mine manager said that whilst in Sydney he had tried to get hold of a book by "a man named King" on the feeding and care of babies, but .did not succeed in finding a copy. The Sydney man re--plied that he thought he had that book, and he made a search for it amongst his luggage, but he could not discover it, and returned to the Chilian to say so, whereupon the Chilian said: "It's quite all right; there's-a Bolivian lady on board who is returning to her husband, and she has King's books, and is going to lend them .to my wife." Who can set limits to the fame of the Plunket Society, when Chilians and Bolivians on a Chinese boat are talking about it,? A Press Association . message from Dunedin states that in connection with its appeal the Dunedin Plunket Society Committee has received a gift of specie, of the value of £500. The Huia Hockey Club is holding its first dance of the season in the Old Navals' Hall on Wednesday next. During the coming year it is intended to hold further dances on the same lines as in previous years, the proceeds' to augment social and club funds. The Bavarian pedagogues have concluded from their researches that we must not expect young parents to produce children of genius. "A rather advanced age is more. favourable to the production of great, personalities." It seems to me that they nave neglected another factor besides the.numerical one (says a writer in the I'iondori "Daily. Telegraph"). The great majority of parents1 are not rich. They have to- earn a livelihood and to establish themselves by their own efforts. The number of those who inherit sufficient to make thorn independent is and always has been small. It follows that in the great majority of households the conditions of life vary. One child is given a more expensive education than another, one has a better start in life than another. The tradition .is, or at any rate used to be, that everything must be sacrificed to the eldest son. To preserve some inheritance for him parents would stint and scrape. To send him to a school of ■ standing and give him a genteel career the daughters would be denied any adequate education. But all this does net apply to the great mass of people outside . the traditions of gentility. With them the eldest children had 'and still have the worst chance. It is the eldest who are at school and growing up in the most difficult years, when the father and. mother have still a number of, young children to provide for, and the family income has not. reached its. maximum. Therefore, the eldest son is likely to be made1 a wage-earner as soon as possible,' and the eldest daughter to be turned into a mother's help or unpaid domestic servant. The youngest children, who come as things grow easier, may be kept at school till they have finished a full course and given a fair chance of an interesting career. That is the order of J things in hundreds of thousands' of homes. It is the normal fate of the children of the poorer middle-class and the more _ ambitious working-plass parents— that is, of a very large proportion of all the children in this country, and for that matter, in any country. So here is another factor working to minimise the number of the eldest-born who achieve fame. The child who is well educated, and who has helped to choose the career most to his taste, is plainly more likely to make a figure in the world than those who have no such luck. But the great majority of children thus helped will be of younger sons and daughters. So,'in spite of the Bavarians, I remain of the opinion that there is not the least reason to believe the eldest-born, have poorer brains than the rest of us ; The following remarks made by a Tasinanian writer will be of interest to those who have noticed a "breadth of language among the most modern of the women and girls of the Dominion, ns they come under the heading of "Why Women Swear." The writer says :--In all the summaries and records of the outstanding features and innovation—social | and political—of the last year, I have seen no mention of the greate.r prevalence of swearing by women in "polite society." I am careful to use the comparative degree, because it would be a great mistake to imagine that the habit is the monopoly of modern matrons and maids. It is nothing of the sort, as a study of seventeenth and eighteenth century plays will abundantly prove. But the expletives used by the ladies in the comedies of Congreve and Vanbrugh are of a mild and milk and watery type, such as "0 Gemini!" or "Crimie," which seems to be a variant o£ the same word. They did not poach on the objurgatory preserves of their fathers and brothers, who left little.to be desired iv the robustness or variety of their oaths. That is where the difference is 'not to bo noted. The emancipated young woman of to-day is not content with swear-words that savour of feminity. She asserts her equality by drawing upon the masculine repertory. ' Now men, as a rule, swear when they are in a temper, or when they want to lend special emphasis to a statement. It is now by no 'means uncommon to hear si young girl of good breeding coolly interlard her conversation ( with strong language where there is not the sluighlest need |of it. It must not be taken as evidence of an ill-conditioned nature; it appears to be rather an act of bravado. And beini old-fashioned enough to find the practice odious, I have been relieved to hear-, on the authority of a friend whose range of social experience is vastly wider than my own, that it is beginning to bo resented by the young men who at first only regarded it with amusement.