MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 May 1922, Page 8

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

NEWS AND NOTES. British princes and princesses n not marry before the ago of 25 without the King’s consent; if over 2t' they may marry by giving notice 1 months beforehand to the Privy Council, unless Parliament decides against the proposed match.

For the second time since she entered the House of Commons Lady Astor has changed the fashion of her hat. At first she wore a modest black toque, and wore it so long that one began to speculate as to whether it would not become the set headgear of women legislators for all time. Then, last summer, she took to a glazed straw with a wide brim and decorated with flowers. To-day her hat is of black velvet, with the brim turned up at a , smart angle and set.off with a buckle. The new style is certainly becoming.

Referring to the fact that the late Sir Ernest Shackleton refused the application of several women anxious to accompany him on his last Antarctic expedition, a contemporary remarks that so far no woman has yet ventured into Polar region. That is not c< rect ,for Peary was twice > accompai ed by his wife in hiss pioneer attemon the North Pole,"and his daughter, Miss Abnighito Peary, was - born among the Arctic icefields, and the first four years , of her life was spent within the Arctic circle. Her Christian name is a reminder of her birthplace, as it is the Esquimaux for "Snow Baby.”

A difference between the old and the new systems of instructing “tiny tots’’ Was remarked upon by the Minister

for Education at the opening of the new infant school at Henderson. In the old days, as he well remembered, said Mr Parr, the infants were required to sit 'stiff and rigid. This strict discipline, so contrary to the nature of the little scholars, was being replaced by the principles of the Montessori system. This system, he added, aimed at developing the mind of the young child in the most natural manner and the result was that while he was apparently playing Tie was really learning. Since the chief of police at Constantinople issued an edict proclaiming that Turkish women dancing in public are liable to prosecution the dancing resorts have been thronged with Turkish women from the harems disguised as Europeans. The fox-trot, and even the modest waltz, shock the old-fashioned Turk, despite the fact that they have had to discard many (dd customs —including that of having four wives—owing to tho high cost of living. Turkish women who have been abroad grumble when they get home, a s they cannot go about to tea dances, dinner dances, and similar amusements. They have therefore formed Turkish womens clubs where the yachmak, or veil, can be discarded in favour of becoming afternoon or evening frocks, procured for a small sum, in which they may be seen in various ballrooms dancing merrily with Europeans, while their less clever sisters, demurely veiled, look on long ingly. But to dance with a foreigner is a greater offence than to dance with a Moslem, and all Constantinople is on tire tiptoe of expectancy to see what will happen when the local Turkish vigilance societies discover the ruse. Her husband ignored her. Never spoke except when absolutely necessary. Never acquainted her with his arrangements. Never took her out. Went alone on Li s summer holidays. Never said where he was going, or when he intended to return. These were some of the complaints made by Lucy. Watts, who at Nottingham was granted £2 per week maintenance on the ground of desertion by HenryWatts, paper merchant. According to plaintiff's solicitor, Watts started his course of conduct obviously wi-' the intention of inducing' his wife to leave him. Mrs Watt s at first insisted the suggestion that they were unhappy, and would be better am--but ultimately left while her husband was away from home. The defence was that the wife left without cause.