MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 June 1921, Page 8

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

NEWS AND NOTES. (The Lady Editor will be pleased to receive for publication in this column, items of social or personal news. Such items should be fully authenticated.) Among the disabilities of school children mentioned by Miss Fisher at a demonstration of the health and recreation department of the Auckland Y.M.C.A. was the carrying of heavy schoolbags on ” one shoulder, which would endanger the straightening of the spine. Miss Fisher said that a regulation had been made at Invercargill that the load should’ be divided, which was better sense and more hygienic. Miss Pearl White, the American kinema star, when visiting Paris recently, was being shown round the printing works of the theatrical paper “Comaedia.” Suddenly she sat down before a linotype machine, and set up several lines of type. Then, turning round with a smile, she exclaimed : “Ah, you are surprised ! But, you see, I used to work in a composingroom when 1 was 12 years old, and" I have never fprgotten my first ‘trade.’ ” An unusual gift was made to the Melbourne Children’s Hospital a few days ago, when Mi’ John Santos, wharf labourer, of Hope and Straw streets, West Brunswick, transferred to the institution £6OO in cash, the deeds of two lots of real estate and the contract oT sale of two other lots. The gift, the tut&l value of which is about £2OOO, was made on condition that he was allowed to live in one of the cottages which he transferred. Mr Santos, who is a Portuguese by birth, is of the opinion that hospitals, especially • hildren’s hospitals, should be cordially supported by the public, and he has accordingly done his part. The engagement is announced of Miss Mekura (“Queenie”) Taiaroa to Mr Keimana Tuatini, of Raetihi. The two young people are well and popularly kuiiwu in Wanganui and throughout the di.-t’ict (says the “Chronicle”). The bride-elect, who comes from a prominent South island family, is a grand-daughter of the late Hon. 11. K. Taiaroa, M.L.C. Her lather was the late John Taiaroa, the well-known Otago footballer and New Zealand international representative in 1884. Miss Taiaroa took a prominent part in Maori patriotic entertainments held in Wanganui during the great war. Mr luatini is a returned soldier, and is engaged in farming pursuits at Raetihi. Any of the land girls I have heard of so far” (says a writer in the Birmingham Post), “who have tried to (rut the statement that they are ‘wanted elsewhere’ to the proof, have found themselves surfunded by ‘buts’ and ‘ifs.’ They begin to wonder whether there is really a chance anywhere for women who want outdoor work, and are young enough to hope that work may include a little of the joy o* appreciation. When one goes carefully through the collected reports of the women delegates sent overseas to investigate, one comes back to the fact that the women with capital always have a chance, provided, of course, they will put strenuous work as well as capital into their enterprise. In New Zealand, women with not less than £250 to £3OO are encouraged to take up dairying, fruitgrowing and poultry keeping. As ‘.lands’ with capital, women who emigrate should know what they arc facing. They will have to combine housework with farm work, and they will have to work for all they are worth.” The case of Miss F. Lammas, of Nel- 1 son, whose statement as to her “wonderful cure” through the agency of Ratana, the Maori “miracle man,” has been published, continues to excite considerable interest. In a letter to a member of the “New Zealand Herald” staff, Miss Lammas says : —“I am pleased to tell yon that I have made wonderful progress since you saw me, in spite of the cold weather, ' which always made me so much worse. ' I grow stronger daily, and am increasing in weight entirely to the doctor’s satisfaction. He thinks my recovery just 1 marvellous. I can eat practically anything now, and sleep like a top, two ' things almost impossible previously. Only three months ago I was so seriously ill I 1 was waiting to die. Now 1 am a new ' being, having neither pain nor support! It is almost like being raised from the 1 dead. I have had lots, of motor rides ’ through the kindness of friends, which, c as well as my daily walks along the * streets, I enjoy to the full. Truly the 1 day of miracles is not past. The first * time I went to church there was great rejoicing, and the whole congregation arose and-sang the Doxology!” .

A novel scheme to check the serious divorce evil in the United States is suggested by Mr Justice Brothers, of the Chicago Circuit Court, who is about to leave the Bench owing to his health having broken down under the strain of endeavouring to keep pace with the hundreds of cases pouring into his court, states an exchange. Recklessness among women is the chief cause of the appalling amount of unfaithfulness and the increasing number of broken homes, according to the Justice. “Reckless wives have supplanted the old-fashioned home-loving women,” he declares, “ana the rpsiilts are extremely serious. Reckless wives become reckless mothers, which frame of mind is immediately reflected in the children. The only thing which can change the present state of affairs i ( s for each family to fotm an arbitration court, before which husbands and wives can bring their marital troubles. The real cause ot these troubles, which is one I have mentioned, will then come to light, and such women be brought to see the error of their ways.”