HERE AND THERE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 22, 27 January 1931, Page 13

HERE AND THERE

Visiting the Homeland. A visitor to New Zealand at present is an artist, Mr. Eliotb. Gruner, whowas broti at Poverty Bay, about 48 years ago, and taken to Australia the iiext year. Mr. Gruner is enjoying a visit to his native land immensely, ■camping out amidst beautiful scenes, and carrying these away on canvas. A townswoman of his is Mary Blair (Mrs. Douglas Blair), also an artist;, and author of "Eowhai Blossoms" and "By Pacific Waters." , Maori Girls' Home. • > Many people will be interested in. the opening of the home for Maori girls at Onehunga, one at which domestic science and hygiene will be specially taught. Mrs. George Bowron, Christchurch, president of the Methodist Women 's Missionary Union, performed the opening ceremony! The old Methodist parsonage at Grey street East has been selected for the beginning of a movement that will probably develop into a larger one, greatly to the benefit of the Maoris. The building has been renovated and altered, the funds having been collected by the members of the union. There are one and a-half acres of ground, laid out in gardens and lawns. Girls, will be admitted between the ages of 14 and 17 years, and will bo given special training to enable them to work among their own people. There is a smaller homo conducted by the Methodist Board of Missions at Te Kuiti, which is doing excellent work. An Artistic Exhibition. An exhibition- of unique work on tiles —artistic drawings in colour lines —was given in New York recently by Mrs. Percy Grainger, wife of the famous Australian pianist, composer, and conductor. As Miss Ella Strom, | Mrs. Grainger passed through Welling- | ton two or three years ago shortly before her marriage. In her tile paintings Mrs. Grainger makes portraits of real people, presenting symbolic impressions of each subject's personality rather than a detailed likeness. In. her exhibition there were imaginative pic- j tures in a romantic, fairy-tale style, and miscellaneous subjects and designs, do- '. corative and colourful. "_ Apparently | this is one artistic couple who find it | entirely possible to pursue their separ- i ate professional careers without tern- i peramental clashes," remarks ,the New , York "Evening Post." VThere were J two little things at Monday's exhibi-, tion which subtly suggested the reason. One was a rapt-faced self-portrait of 'Ella Grainger listening to music,' and the other was Percy Grainger's smile j as he slipped an arm. around his wife's waist and beamed proudly at the congratulatory guests." Shipboard Friends. During her travels Mrs. G. D. Greenwood, who returned to Now Zealand on Sunday, met on boarld ship Mr. and Mrs. Walter Raphael, of Newmarket, England. Mr. Raphael has owned several Derby winners, and as Mrs. Greenwood is the wife of Gloaming's owner, and authoress of a book about this equine champion, they had much to talk of. Major Montague, a former secretary of the Portland Club, who helped to frame the bridge rules at the club some years ago, was another passenger, and Mrs. Greenwood ' said she had the good fortune to play quite often with Major Montague and Mr. Eaphael. Mrs. Eaphael did not play, but one who sometimes made the fourth was Mrs. Moore, of Hawkes Bay, whose son is now Premier of Queensland. New Mannequins. Mannequins will have to look to their laurels, for smart-looking young men stepped into their preserves recently at the Salon 'd'Automne in the Grand Palais, Paris, and showed off with no little attractiveness of style the latest fashions in dressing-gowns and pyjamas before a large assembly of dress critics, writes a correspondent to the "Daily Mail." They were introduced by that, celebrated arbiter of fashion, Andre de Fouquieres, who announced the maker of each stylish creatiou as the art expert might name the creator of a masterpiece, and the men "mannequins," after making a final pirouetto before disappearing behind a curtain, bowed, thus taking their snare of the applause. As (women) mannequins appeared alternately in similar garments designed for their own sex the onlooker enjoyed the luxury of comparison. j