MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 May 1927, Page 10

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

NEWS AND NOTES.

Tailored suits arc fashionable this winter, especially in small checked designs, sometimes the coat being of a plain material and the skirt, checked. The coats are short, and rather tightfitting. with collars and cuffs of the same material as. the skirt.

It has often been said that English tennis girls at Wimbledon and on the Riviera, arc dowdy in their appearance compared with the chic French and Spanish stars. There used to be ;>, groat deal of truth in this, but at •h-e Riviera tournaments there was a marked change. The new fashion has been set by some of the younger players, notably Miss Eileen Bennett, whose appearance on the court is very (■harming. . At the Beaulieu tournamen she was the envy of players and onlookers alike. She wore an apricot coloured sleeveless jumper made of a mysterious lustrous-looking material.

id the Scandinavian countries thanks to the better understanding of their demands, women have obtained almost without a struggle rights for which in most, other countries they would have to spend long years of effort. A surprise of this kind has just come from Finland, where the 'aw relating to pensions for civil servants has recently been revised on the basis of perfect equality as between men and women. According to the new arrangement not only does the widow receive the pension due to her busband at. the death of the latter, but ihe widower has the right to the pension due to his late wife. In the same way the pension payable to orphans of civil servants up to IS years of age are calculated on the same basis for boys and girls.

“I do not like, to see women ride astride. The other way looks much more graceful.” The King made this remark as he watched the women riders at. the Hunter Show in Islington Agricultural Hull recently. The sidesaddle ha,s been accounted old-fash-ioned since the. war, but the King’s disapproval of the astride seat may perhaps restore its popularity. “The modei’n girl thinks she is inferior to man if she does not ride astride as he loes," said a teacher of a Kensington riding school. “When I try to discourage them they want to learn both methods.” Another authority said: “It is quite wrong for girls to try to sit a horse in the same way as a man. Only a super girl can do it with safety. In the hunting field it is frankly dangerous for a woman to rule astride.”

“If flu' social status of donestic service r.ouhl lie raised so that it was i‘ccog)ii;>< d as an honourable profos-

ion--at all events, for a few years—for the daughters of professional men in pool - circumstane.es. I think that one of our great social problems would be in a fair way to be solved,” said Dean Inge, speaking at the Mansion I'ousd on behalf of the L<oan Fund for I'j lu ated Women, and SubsequeiK Aid to Careers, which is administered by the Central Unemployment Bureau. A list of careers, for which educated women might be trained, had come into the Dean’s possession, and he noted that it ended with lady cooks. “Why should it stop .there?” he asked. “Why should we not have lady parlourmaids and lady housemaids? It only requires a little abatement of snobbishness on both sides.”

In England the new Criminal .Justice Act is now in force. This allows cases to be tried by magistrates, w'hich formerly were sent to higher courts This saves expense, a great considera tion for the woman litigant, who has usually less money than the man, bu the danger is the greater difficulty that a. poor litigant experiences in the inferior courts of being professionally and ably represented, fl’his may be harder on the male litigant than on the Woman, w’ho usually has a clearer head w’hen thrown on her own resources. Says a legal expert: “It is impossible to exaggerate the difficulty experienced by many defendants when asked to defend themselves, aspccially as regards cross-examining I lie other side. This was shown by a recent case w'hen a man was asked to put questions to his wufe, who had been, giving evidence as to his illtreatment of her. After long hesitation, he’ remarked, “I can’t think of anything to ask her. except that I should like to know if she is better now than she was.’ ”

Informality was the keynote of the first afternoon party at Buckingham Palace, when Their Majesties entertained a number of friends to tea (says the “Queen). For this reason the King and Queen did not stand together to receive their guests, but remained at different ends of the room shaking hands with people as they arrived. Later they moved about, the rooms talking to groups of friends here and there with a complete absence of formality which put everyone at ease. The Queen looked particularly beautiful in a lovely shade of pale grey (hat toned admirably with her white hair, which was devoid of any ornament. King George was looking ext> emely well, and was in animated conversation with many friends during the afternoon. There were many inquiries for the baby Princess Elizabeth, to which Her Majesty smilingly responded, but those guests who had hoped to obtain a glimpse of her were doomed to disappointment.

A story comes from Sydney of a kind and graceful action on the part of the Duchess of York. It appears that an Australian private was among the men who were convalescing at Glamis Castle during the war, and the Duchess used to talk to him at times, and since the war has occasionally written to him. He wrote and told her when he was going to be married and she sent him congratulations and a, little gift. When they arrived in Sydney, the Duchess sent him a

note to come and see her at Government House and to bring his wife also. This he did, getting a. friend to take them along in a nice car, and expected to be there about ten minutes or so, but to the astonishment of all concerned, they were there for about forty miiiutes. But the man remarked laughingly afterwards that he did not get much out of it, as after a minute or two the Duchess and his wife started talking about babies, and 1

ic was quite out of it. However, they lad mi extremely pleasant visit, and me to remember always.