MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 November 1927, Page 10

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

(Notes by

Marjorie)

A SHOPPING SENSE.

POSSESSED BY MEN.

Women u?ed to be exclusively t|ie shopping sex, while meh simply purchased things when they had to. It was said that “a man buys a hat, but a woman chooses one.” This sex distinction, is rapidly disappearing, for men arc beginning to take a real interest in their personal purchases, where once they regarded buying things as a nuisance and a bore. It is not to be thought that men have yet made shopping a fine art, demanding a special outing and the company of a friend when they go to select, a hat. They have not yet been civilised up to this point, hut they have reached the stage of taking* an intelligent interest in their purchases. It is a compliment, to the influence of women that nowadays men actually go shopping, are known to look in the hosier's windows without shame and even, in advanced cases, to come out of a shop without making a purchase, when they have not found rhe shade in socks that they require. The men’s shops are awake to this startling change, and they have transformed themselves to meet it. Once upon a time a hatter’s shop was like a warehouse —merely a countei and rows of dusty boxes arranged round the walls on shelves. Now the hatter has an attractive display of hats in the widest variety, and his shop is brilliant with showcases, mirrors and display lights. He has discovered that, man is a shopping animal, with an interest in styles and fashions, and with this discovery has come* increased business, for the man who is aware of the differences in hats is a more frequent purchaser than the man who used to bny a new hat only when his wife threatened to burn his old one. So it is with shirts, ties, socks, suitings, and so on. Mail has developed discrimination, preference, ideas. Where he used to be content to be clothed, he now insists on being dressed. . , It was a sign of the times when, in a railway carriage recently, a man handed his newspaper to a friend with the remark: “These shirts sound quite interesting. I must run along and have a look at them.” “■You certainly should, replied the friend, “as a matter of fact, I bought half a dozen yesterday. They are beautifully cut, and I am sure they will wash splendidly.” That man had, in fact,, seriously taken to the art of' sJxbmnng. The point about the washability of shirts deserved full marks.

MRS AMERY IN AUSTRALIA

Mrs Amery, wife of the Secretary of, State for the Dominions fwho, with her husband, will shortly be visiting Greymouth), has been winning golden opinions among the women of Aus; tralia during her second visit to that vast country. Just before coming to Melbourne she toured the Mallee, dis;, trict with Mr Amery, her visit being to see specially the English settlers were getting on, and the conditions under which they , were working. Though some of them were undoubtedly living under most trying conditions, she was convinced that, like the people whose land they had adopted, they would show true courage and win through. “I find the finest spirit of service everywhere,” said Mrs Amery, speaking in Melbourne, “especially in the outlying districts. Kindness is found on every hand, and the way the new settlers are making the best of the new conditions and building up homes is marvellous.” Mrs Amery was full of admiration of the wild flowers of West Australia, and thought the whole land was beautiful. • She had . a special interest in her 'visit to ’ -the “Lady Novar Rest Home.’’ This is a maternity home for country mothers. There they are able to stay for a week or ten days before the birth of their babies, and—a most unusual privilege—could take their other small children with them, and have them cared for while they were in hospital. Mrs Amery is also much interested in the Women’s Institute movement, and was pleased to hear of its. success in several States, Mrs Amery has been having a very much occupied, time for she has visited a great number of institutions,' and has been entertained by a number of women’s societies.

THE UNEXPLORED SEA. Miss C. F. Elam, D.Sc., who was formerly at Newnham College, Cambridge, and is one of the two women members of the Iron and Steel Institute, has. been awarded the scholarship provided by Sir Robert Hadfield to the second, (triennial) Empire Min’ ing and Metallurgical Congress, which opened in Canada on August 22. Mias Elam is now engaged at the RoyalSchool of Mines, South Kensington. “She has launched, her barque upo„n a sea hitherto , unexplored by women, ,was the comment of a professor, on her work.

AIRWOMEN OF ITALY.

POPULARISING FLYING.

“How can I make the Italian public take more interest in aviation? is a question that the leader of modern Italy has often asked, says the Milan correspondent of the Daily Express. It was not enough to say that the future of Italy lies in the aii, and that he would like to see the sun obscured by the number of flying machines in the sky over Rome, and it served little to offer free rides to Italians on the new air routes from the north to the south of Italy. “We must try something else,” said the Fascist leaders, and they invited women to learn to fly. promising them equal opportunities and equal rights in the air. The Aero Club of. Milan opened a flying school for women at just, outside Milan, on September 1. There are now seven aeroplanes in that aerodrome at their disposal. There were five candidates on the opening day, since when the number rtf pupils has greatly increased. They must be more than 18 years of age, must pass a severe medical test and have permission from both parents, or, if married, from their husbands, to fly. The first lesson consists of a trial flight, as passenger, in order to ascertain the candidate’s reaction to high altitudes. ’ She then learns the controls on a dummy aeroplane, which does not rise, but runs along the ground, after which she makes acquaintance with real difficulties in the air in a machine with dual controls. 4t last she may fly alone, and, if she has had 2 lessons with an instructor, she must have 25 flights before she carries out the test flight which, if successful entitles her to her pilot’s license. This flight must take place on a windy day, when atmospheric conditions are not wholly favourable. Women in Italy can be useful, not onlv as mothers of future soldiers, but as distributers of propaganda, so the Corriere della Sera states.

IN JAPAN. A remarkable story of a woman’s triumph over ill-fortune comes from the East. Though she is without hands, and holds her brushes with her teeth, the paintings of Yoneko Yamaguki, a young woman of 24, have won her fame in Japan, and at a recent exhibition in Paris attracted much attention. Her subjects are usually scenes from the life of the “tea houses,” which she paints with realism as she was herself once a geisha. Her hands had to be amputated owing to injuries sustained when her father suddenly lost his reason and attacked her with a knife. A cultured Japanese gentleman interested himself in the cripple, and had her taught painting. She progressed rapidly, and was soon appointed teacher in a girls’ college. She will shortly travel to Paris to study art there.

GERMAN WOMEN IN CONFLICT. Bobbed hair and short skirts started a violent conflict within the feminine ranke of the “Stahlhelm,” the German legion of war veterans. The provincial groups of the “Koenigin Luise Bund,” as the women’s branch of the legion is called, were stirred to indignation by the bobbed hair and short skirts worn by their patriotic sisters in Berlin. A resolution setting forth what they regarded as the error of the Berliners’ ways was promptly dispatched to Berlin. Members of the Berlin branch, however, iturned like the proverbial worm. After stressing their generous hospitality to the many thousands of war veterans at the recent “Steel Helmet” demonstration in Berlin, they withdrew from the “Koenigin Luise Bund,” and formed an organisation of their oWn under the name of “Ulisenbund.” Abbreviated hair and skirts were not viewed with disfavour in the new “verein.”