THE MODERN GIRL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 22 October 1924, Page 8

THE MODERN GIRL.

"AS .GOOD AS EVER.” V CLERGYMAN AS CHAMPION

SYDNEY, OCT. 2. “Is the modern girl any worse morally than ner grandmotneri"' was a question that the Rev. J. C. James, of Collins Street (Melbourne), Congregational Church, was asked last Mr. James, who passed through Auckland by the Makura on the iasc trip to Australia, is the most popular preacher in Melbourne to-day. He is a champion of the modern girl “I think,” Mr. James said, ‘‘‘that despite all that ha s been said about cigarette smoking and cocktail drinkmg, girls—in the mass —are as good really as they were at any period. The modern girl is more exposed to temptations outside her own honie, but she is better prepared to repel them. Some have mistaken liberty for license, and m the frantic desire to he thought smart and ‘sporty,’ they are inclined to Haunt their disregard for the opinion of sober-minded people. But it is possible that the freedom women now enjoy has led to a cloak of self-re-straint which builds character without self-discipline. “Any young girl is likely to become a reckless pleasure-seeker, always on the edge of disaster. I believe that xho gzrl of to-day is a. fitter mate for man than th© merely sentimental girl of bygone days, who lived a cloistered existence until someone sought her vdy-white hand in marriage. “Girls of to-day are healthier, better educated, certainly more practical and more helpful altogether than the girl of yesterday. She may be moro demonstrative, more anxious to assert her independence, more insistent in claiming what ghe believes to be her nghts, and probably more jealous of Place in the scheme of things. She is inclined to apo man in dress and manners. She has in this wav ost much of her charm. But she will find it again when she settles down in the role of wife and mother. The Australian girl does not suffer liv comparison with the American girl, though the latter is often placed upon a pedestal by he r men folk.”