FOR WOMEN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17523, 5 July 1917, Page 3

FOR WOMEN.

NEWS AND NOTES.

Mrs Gordon (Pigeon Bay) is in town. Mrs Boyle has returned from Hanmor.

Mr and Mrs P. H. Phillips arrived from tho north yesterday morning. Mr and Mrs Fels (Dunedin) are staying at the United Service. Mrs Monson (Westport) -is visiting Christchurcli.

Mr and Mrs A. 11. Guild (Temuka) are staying at the Clarendon. Mrs Quano (Pawinui) has returned from a holiday in the North Island. Mr and Mrs Mowbray Tripp (South Canterbury) aro staying, at Warners. Mr and Mrs J.. Scott (Timani) arrived in Christening -esto-dny and are staving «t the Clarendon. The Misses Laurie, of Christchurcli, are staying at Elgin Crescent, Holland Park, London. Mrs A. W.' Rutherford, inn., returned from Timaru on Tuesday and went, on to her home at Brookdale yesterday morning.

Mr' and Mrs Aufrcre Fenwick (Dunedin) are in town for n few days when they will leave for tho North Island and Sydney.

Mrs Arthur Reeves had a few friends to tea on Monday afternoon, among them being Mrs Lawrence, Mrs Hugh Buchanan, Mrs J. T. Thomson, Miss Wynn-Williaros and Miss Reeves. The Mask and Domino Dance recently held at the Art Gallery was the means of raising the sum of £ll 12b 6d, which has been handed to the Red Cross Society. i ,

MARIE CORELLI. Probably no writer ot to-day works under wore delightful and inspiring conditions than Miss Marie Corelh. Her charming,, quaint, gabled house in Stratford'-uii-Avon is so old that Shakespeare must often have passed it in '..is boyhood, and even then it was no lonc-er young. Within the old-world Set Is enshrined one of the most! luxuriously equipped of modern homes, made vocal with the song of innumerable birds, Miss Corellfe peta, and made beautiful with a prolusion of flowers in every room. The garden vh'ch surrounds this beautiful homo on three sides is steeped in tho perfume of roses and flowers of every hue, and shut in by old, far-spreading trees. In this garden Miss Corelh has evolved some of her later books and written their first rough pencil outlinos.

A PURE FOOD CAMPAIGN. There is no more important activity of tho many undertaken by the Home Economics Section of the General {federation of Women's Clubs in America than the attention bestowed on tho need for food sanitation. This is a, problem with which women who do their own marketing hero are already familiar, painfully familiar, one might say, and it is high time that New Zealand housewives combined upon the matter of the most flagrant and obvious offences against food sanitation in our own shops and cookhouses. Hero is what the " Ladies' Journal" has to say upon the matter, as one of a number of domestic problems dealt with by the - Home Economics Department of tho General Federation of Women's Clubs :-r~ One of the most vital phases of tho work is food sanitation. Tho message from the food sanitation committee is: "Educate rather than agitate." There was at one time too much agitation over "pure" food, which created antagonism with few desired result*. We aro still striving to educate, but with regard to "safe" and "clean" food as well as "pure" food, for food that is "pure" may not bo safe and it may not be clean.

A great deal has been accomplished in improving food conditions, but there is - much yet to be done, especially in tho matter of legislation, for there are few food sanitation laws in America to-day an astonishing fact when one considers that food sanitation should be the first food regulation, because it s<v directly affects tho public welfare.

Wo women are responsible for wrong conditions, foi we give our approval by buying whatever is put up to us, whether it be clean or unclean, full measure or short. The public has i right to clean food. The merchant has no right to sell unclean or unsafe food, but if the public will buy it he is not to b« expected to spend his money for glass cases and for screens to protect it, and thus lessen his profits needlesslv.

Our foods should he better not only from flies, dust, animals and odours, but from being handled and breathed upon and smelletl ol by care. 'ess, indifferent, possibly diseased, perons, who have freo access to them through the displays in open windows and on outdoor stands.

Our greatest need and our surest help are uniform food laws, which should not only regulate the purity ?nd cleanliness of the foodstuffs, but should ensure the snfc condition of health of those handling the food. It is the aim of the Home Economics Department of the • Federation to lend every help to tho furtherance of this effort to secure uniform food laws.

MUST NAVY GO?

Next year, says "Everybody's Journal," navy may not be available at any price, and then followers of that becoming shade will accept tho inevitable with cheerful resignation, and purchase whatever shades they are lucky enough to get, but in the meantime it is navy, navy, everywhere, not even overshadowed by tho popular dark green, which is very fashionable indeed in Australia this winter for costumes, coats and skirts, top-coats, and even semi-evening dresses, as well as accessories. . Materials, whether of navy, green, or any other colour, are verv exoeusivo indeed. If tho fawn shades were half tho price of the navy, our women would doubtless buy them to a much greater extent; but it -s beyond human nature, when blue is tha favourite colour, to pay the same price for a fawn or sand one docs nat caj' o for. Cream materials are very scarce, and tho prices, when they are obtainable, aro beyond the average purse. j