FOR WOMEN LIFE NEED NEVER BE DULL, N.Z. WOMAN SAYS

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 March 1949, Page 8

FOR WOMEN LIFE NEED NEVER BE DULL, N.Z. WOMAN SAYS

Life need never be dull, According to a New Zealand woman who apparently has every intention of proving the truth of her belief, says an article in the Dominion. At present driving a taxi in Durban, South Africa, she is constantly looking for fresh fields —and finding them. She is Miss ’ Winsome Bach, a trained physical recreation instructor. Life is never dull unless one clings to a rut, according to this brisk, ad-venture-seeking New Zealander. Wanderlust has urged her to take positions in different countries and in that way she has learned to know new countrysides and meet interesting people. Leaving the Dominion originally to study in_ England, Miss Bach took the London University diploma in physical education. She returned to Australia and taught in a Sydney girl’s school. A year later she returned to England teaching in many schools, including one for blind and mentally retarded children. While in Birmingham she took up flying and obtained her aviator’s certificate. , • -

Stranded At Singapore

Miss Bach’s next move was to Jamaica, on a Colonial Office appointment. There she started a physical training scheme for all schools, where she taught negroes, Chinese, Indians, Syrians and a sprinkling of Europeans. At the end of her contract she was due to return to England, but decided to return to New Zealand to see her family. After a short time in the Dominion she decided to go to South Africa.

Last February she sailed with her sister, Miss M. Bach, to Melbourne, flew to Perth, took a ship to Singapore, and was stranded there for three months.

' She obtained jobs teaching in a Chinese girls’ school and a Portuguese mission school and coaching in swimming. She also supervised a guest house for a time. Into her action-crowded life Miss Each, who is keen on mountaineering, ice skating and ski-ing has also done some climbing in New Zealand and once climbed Europe’s celebrated Mona Blanc. She has also cycled through Normandy and Brittany, hiked through the Bernese Oberland and spent holidays on the Riviera and other parts of the Continent. Joint Association

Writing to the Dominion which Miss Bach states “is the only New Zealand newspaper that finds its way into the reading room of the Durban public library,” she has described something of the activities of the Australian and New Zealand Association in Durban. “The association meets once a month,” she states. “In October a reception was held at the Marine Hotel, Durban, by the Australian and New Zealand Association to welcome Mr Alfred Stirling, the newly-appointed High Commissioner for Australia to the Union of South Africa.” “It would be a good thing if intending New Zealand visitors to Durban knew of this joint association,” Miss Bach stated. “They would be very welcome and we might be able to help and advise new arrivals. NOVEL GADGETS FOR U.S. DRESSMAKERS While dress prices continue to soar American women, are sewing their own. The home dressmaking movement has grown by leaps and bounds until the National Needlecraft Bureau estimates that there are now 23,000,000 home sewers. Sewing has been called the nation’s number one hobby, says a New York message. Manufacturers, to tap this large market, have gone to work to invent scores of small gadgets to help the home sewer.

Among these is a device for marking the hemline at seven inches or more from the floor by means of a metal measuring stick and common pins.

A needle threader that works in the dark and threads at the push of a button is another headliner. Sewinglabels on clothes has been supplanted by a modern method of pressing identifying tape into the garment. The tape is of a plastic material that adheres to the dress or suit once the heat of an iron is apolied. *■ A portable electric presser makes it easier to iron parts of a garment,, such as pleats, trouser creases, or collars.

A good idea is the “imbedded” snapper used on gloves and in children’s garments. It can be “hammered” into place instead of being sewed on. A space-saving device makes it possible to put “12 garments in the space ordinarily allowed for two.” It is a metal contraption to be fastened on the door and is “an additional closet within a closet.

A light but broadened hanger especially designed for fur coats is another novelty.