WOMEN’S WORLD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 141, 16 May 1929, Page 11

WOMEN’S WORLD.

(By “GERMAINE.”)

Mrs T. J. Bettle and Miss T. Bettle lett by Monday’s Limited express to spend a short holiday in Whangarei. Mr and Mrs J. C. Gregory, or Brooklyn, Wellington, who have just returned to New Zealand after a two years’ holiday tour through England and the Continent, are visiting Mr M. C. Gregory, of Hoy Street For the fifth time within seven years the nurse who gained top marks for New Zealand in the State midwifery examinations is a Whangarei Hospital trainee. This year the nurse was Miss Joan Hagen. • The Hospital Board this week decided to present her with a gold medal. The other four nurses from Whangarei were Sister Ruff and Nurses Bulley, McDonald and Collier. The board passed a resolution congratulating the staff lecturers on the splendid results of their tuition.

TEA GOWNS RETURN. One of the most interesting of the minor phases of fashion is the return of the tea-gown, to its old form, writes a Londoner, complete with train and flowing ends. The longer backs in evening gowns have led to this revival, and there are many lovely models with actual trains, and made in the styles of long ago, but in different materials. Many of them are in metal georgettes and lace, and others in velvet broche on georgette, with little touches of fur. Worth, the great French dressmaker has sponsored some that are being worn at the moment, and lie is 1 featuring a new light blue which is very lovely in these garments. The old tea-gown in its more billowy form is not seen, >and in its new design it is a graceful and more fitting garment. Many of the new tea-gowns are made of coat and slip', as well as in the single-garment form,' and where the coat style is used the coat shows the dips at the back, the slip being mostly in a fairly straight shape, with a movement of scallops at the foot. NURSING PROFESSION.

QUESTION OF HOURS. “I am not going to be a party to working any man or woman seven days a week, especially in the nursing profession, where the women have to make such sacrifices,” .said tho Minister of Health (Hon. A. J. Stallworthy) when replying yesterday at Wellington to a deputation from the Wairarapa Hospital Board. “I think;” the Minister added, “that it is the bounden duty of this Dominion to see that the conditions of this splendid service are made as amenable as possible. It is our duty to the nurses and to the patients.” He added that he would be signally failing in his duty if he did not do his utmost to improve the conditions under which the nurses worked. HIGH TIDE OF PARADES. The high tide of dress parades is now on in London, and many lovely things are being shown (says an exchange). The evening clothes are wonderful. At a parade of the Maison Arthur, held at the Hotel Cecil, the evening clothes were of two kinds — one consisted of lovely butterfly dresses in silk muslin or- silk chiffon, covered with patterns, and made fitting as to the bodice and the skirts floating in tails like a fluttering butterfly or an angel fish at the back. Some were in black and red, like the admiral butterfly, and others in pastel colours, and all in large filmy patterns, roses and chintz flowers. These filmy materials, flowing from slim bodices and fitted hips into tails and ends, were astonishingly lovely, and are a new type of period dress. The other distinctive evening type was in heavier material, mostly faille, and had astonishing decorations at the back. Some had bustles made of flat bows; others huge, basques that stood out, and were decorated with jewelling to match that used on the bodice. This gave them a mediaeval look from the back, but. in front, the skirts, being shorter than the back, had a coquettish touch of modernity. Others again kept to the draped styles that have been in fashion, and merely accentuated them by strong droops at one side. The colours varied, but the new Capucine reds, which are really shades of nasturtium, were the most startling. The colour was in all kinds of material—silk tulle, faille, moire, marocain, shiny satin, and a number of other fabrics, of which the softer were the most interesting. It was shown in day dresses, also, but was at its best for evening. Then there was the 1 funny pink in what someone called a flannel shade, a very pale pink with a milky tinge. The colour was shown for day and evening: it has been sponsored by one of the great French houses, and has been used m woollens,' in silks, and in satins, it is at its best, in a very shiny satin, which gives a bloom to the cheek of the wearer.

WOMEN IN OFFICES. ARE THEY - A SUCCESS? “Are women a failure in the shipping world? asks the London Daily News, instancing the Royal Mail ...Steam Packet Co,, which is - continually replacing its female scaff with men. "When it moves to its new Leadenhall Street offices at Whitsuntide, it will have no women on the staff. The R.M.S.P. officially explains that it is merely reverting to its pre-war policy of having an all-male staff; but tire managing director of another big shipping firm told the Daily News that women had not been a great success in clerical work. None was thus employed in any London shipping °®‘\Ve employ'women typists and also women to superintend tho fleet s female staff,” he said, “but my experience is that women do not put their heart and soul in office work. After all it is the men who are the bread ancl butter earners. I imagine that girls in the shipping world have been forced to realise the fact, and accordingly were glad to leave after the war, to enable men to take their places.

Exquisite wedding veils offine hand worked net lace are procurable at Arts and Crafts” Showroom, Coleman Place (upstairs, Lewis Studio entrance). Inspection invited. —Advt.

WOMEN POLICE

Per Press Association

MOTHERS’ UNION: All Saints’ Girls’ Club presented a very bright- appearance yesterday afternoon, when the Mothers’ Union held their monthly gathering. Mrs Fancourt presided and welcomed about sixty members, their friends and children. The bright fire and beautiful flowers were much admired. After a dainty afternoon tea had been sorved, a most enjoyable musical programme arranged by Mrs Briden-Jones was given as follows:—Violin solo, Miss Howley; recitations, Mrs Chittenden and Master Tavlor; monologue. Master Cater ; songs, Mrs Russell, Miss Morgan, Master Lund, Mr Wollerman and Mrs Twigg; pianoforte solos, Mrs Collinson and Miss Grace Taylor. Mesdames Jackson, Howley, and Wollerman proved very able accompanists.

THE JEAN MUIR STUDIO. Miss Jean Muir had a splendid attendance at her studio on Tuesday evening, despite the indifferent state of the weather. The rooms in Rangitikei Street are so cheery with colourful hangings that one forgets the weather, charming or otherwise, when one attends the class. The Quickstep and the 1929 Waltz had special attention, for ihey arc dances that are to become most popular in the cabarets and ballrooms of New Zealand. Delightful music added to the general enjoyment. Miss Muir finds that her pupils are so many that two nights weekly will have to I>B devoted tc> thoin ■ at tho studio. Monday evenings in future will be for beginners and those a little more efficient;' Tuesdays will be for thos© who like to have knowledge or all the fascinating steps that come from the smart night clubs of the Continent and England. DEATH OF MRS G. MOON. OLDEST RESIDENT OF RAGLAN. Per Press Association. <■ HAMILTON, May 15. Mrs George Moon, the oldest resident of Raglan, died to-day in her ninety-ninth year. Born in Perthshire, she came to Sydney with her parents (Mr and Mrs McGregor) at the' age of five years. Three years later the family came to New Zealand, settling in the Northern Wairoa district. When she arrived in New Zealand as a little girl the only language she could speak was Gaelic. She next learned Maori, which she could speak fluently. She was a powerful swimmer, and saved three lives from drowning in the Wairoa River. One of the nearest neighbours was Rev-. Mr Buller, an early misisonary. In 1862 she married the late Mr George Moon, of Raglan, formerly of New Plymouth, and went to Raglan with her husband immediately after. She had lived there ever since the year 1863. The old lady took a daily walk round Raglan till a few weeks ago.

WOMAN DROWNED. WELL-KNOWN RESIDENT OF MURCHISON. Per Press Association. WESTPORT, May. 15. The death by drowning took place this morning of Mrs Hugh Fraser, wife of the county clerk of Murchison. Mrs Fraser was missed from her home at about 11 o’clock. Inquiries as to her whereabouts were made without success, and Constable Robertson and others then made a search, and her body was found" floating face <downwards in about four feet of water in a hole under the Matakitaki Bridge. Life had then been extinct for about two hours. Mrs Fraser was of a very happy disposition, and took a keen interest in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the district, and was also an ardent church worker. She was secretary of the Murchison branch of the Plunket Society. During her lengthy connection witli tho latter society she did much to promote the welfare of the women and children of the district.

GISBORNE, May 15. When a remit favouring the introducing of a system of women police came before the National Council of Women to-day, Miss Lovell Smith stated that the Minisetr was awaiting tlie considered opinion of the conference before moving in the matter. The delegates maintained that this was the most important remit of the conference, and considerable time was spent deliberating on the subject. Eventually it iv;as decided to urge upon the Minister of Justice to appoint trained women police who should have the same status as male police, and to carry on propaganda work in connection with the proposal.

CHILD WELFARE WORK. Per Press Association. GISBORNE, May 15. Remits submitted to the conference of the National Council of Women to-day urged that the Child Welfare Branch of the Education Department be separated from the Education Department, and a distinct public welfare department, embracing child welfare, charitable aid, pensions, family endowments, etcr, be created. After the discussion, in which the difficulty of rearranging the departments was emphasised by the * Auckland delegates, the proposal was withdrawn and a resolution passed merely expressing the opinion that it was in the interests of the Dominion to have the child welfare work separated from the Education Department and made a distinct department. OUR BABIES. By Hygeia. Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). “It is wiser to put a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” THE LIMELIGHT AND ASSERTIVE CHILD.

The following is a continuation of Dr. Gregory’s lecture oil tho limelight and assertive child :

“So much then for the etiology of the limelight child. What is the picture he presents to us? “First, I think we must admit that it is more often a boy than a girl. Assertiveness is not a marked female characteristic, though in the lower animals there are some remarkable exceptions to this general rule. He is often an only child, but not always, by any means. He starts very early in life to try to impress his individuality on all with whom he comes in contact. Absurdly early, it sometimes seems, for

it starts before ho knows how to talk, and can only shout his defiance to the , world. If lie be a younger child he dominates the brothers or sisters above him in years. His wish to be incessantly noticed by his elders if, of course, an unconscious one, and although his plans to this end seems to us at times almost diabolically clever, I think we must allow that there is no such strategy in the child’s conscious mind, and that his manoeuvres are compatible with a perfectly genuine alertness and innocence. Howbeit, conscious or unconscious, a large part of his behaviour is coloured by this desire. He has little use for his own company, and if left much to himself will probably evoke a familiar spirit—an imaginery friend of either sex, who accompanies him as an admiring audience, and may be talked to or boasted to, patronised or scolded, as the mood takes him. “But the modern child is not loft very much alone, and he has a hundred methods of attracting attention to himself when in the presence of grownups. Some of these methods are pleasant enough. He knows that he will win applause by showing off his feats of skill and strength and his ability to turn head over heels or to recite a poem. But that sort of attention is unfortunately not enough for him, perhaps because he is quick to detect that adult admiration of his tricks is but a condescension and that adult attention is often wandering elsewhere. He soons discovers that to get concentrated attention from his elders the stimulus must rather be an unpleasant one, and that if ho wants to stand truly in the limelight he must shock, alarm, or hurt. He is not deterred by affection for the victim, indeed, he is all the more likely to use these methods with someone he really loves.

“The method of ‘shocking’ is a wellknown one. For Instance, however carefully a child’s upbringing may bo, he will get to hear words that are not fit for baby mouths, and he quickly discovers tho effect that they have on his parents. He treasures such a word, repeating it softly to himself, then launches it forth at a well-chosen moment in order to watch the result and to bo in command of all ears. Woe lie to tho parents who look horrified 1 For undoubtedly it will be repeated, ana punishment will only serve to impress the word . on the child’s mind. A ‘damn’ used forcibly and significantly may call for reproof and explanations, but a ‘damn’ brought gaily into the conversation, obviously for effect, should be absolutely ignored, even though tho persistent child may try it half a dozen times a day. The pacenr must be equally, persistent in taking no notice, and the word will soon be dropped and forgotten. “Other children find other methods for shocking their elders. Happily thero aro mothers who aro not easily shocked, or who. being shocked, have sufficient presence of mind to hide it. For no child wants his audience to be merely bored, and a bored attitudo is certainy the best answer to have for this particular attempt. “Perhaps the very easiest way of all for a child to make himself tho centre of attention is.in the refusal of food. From a very early age he finds that one of the most important things in life (according to grown-ups) is to eat your meals. Parents and nurses are, so to speak, hanging over that bowl of bread and milk and urging each spoonful on its way. It probably begins even earlier than that, when the last ounce in the feeding bottle is given a shako and the teat pressed once more into the baby’s mouth. “Here, obviously, is a good handle, a rod with which to rule these people! He only has to protest that he does not like his dinner, he doesn’t want it, and he is not going to eat it, and sooner or later the whole family will be pressed into tho service of coaxing, cajoling, threatening and manoeuvring every spoonful into his mouth. Lhis is a particularly potent weapon ot the child of the poorer classes. io the uneducated mother it is a dreadful thing for a child to refuse its food, and she looks upon it always as a serious sign. She spends much time tempting it with unsuitable food when she has tried everything suitable, and finally in despair brings it to a doctor for a tonic. Some of these cases are, of course, cases of genuine illness, but many of them are the early attempts of a child to establish power over his parents, and the unfortunate part is that he can suffer physically as well as mentally as a result. “Among the folk of his own ago lie will assert his individuality, and although he may use more obvious methods of attracting attention, lie will step more warily because lie lias to consider public opinion. Nearly -all children think seriously of public opinion, which is, of course, represented by those of their own age and a little older; grown-up people form no part of that public. “What is the future of the assertive child —the child whose slogan is ‘Look at me P It can be a very promising one. The type is sound, and the tendency is a healthy one. The assertive child, girl or boy, is going to do things in the world if he gets a chance. His potentialities for good or bad are great, and since he is' nearly always sensitive and susceptible in his early years we may help to direct his enormous energies if we study him with care and treat him with tact. ~ “That brings us to the important question of management. I cannot resist saying that the first essential is to provide brothers and sisters. I do not imply that the limelight cluM is never found in large families. He is found in families of every size. But at least he is in his proper surroundines; he has from his earliest years social duties and responsibilities which the only child lacks; lie must perforce share with others the attention and affection of his parents, and, above all, lie has the ever-present criticism of his conduct which, coming from his own generation, carries more weight than anything from an adult source. All this tends to give him balance, to cultivate insight, and to keep him, in proper language, from making too much of a fool of himself. Tho only child, oil the other hand, starts with an immense disadvantage. He is in constant companionship with people who tower above him in age and experience; cither they must stoop to him, which he dislikes, or he must strain up to them. He is con-

stantly losing touch with them, or their thoughts and conversation soar into realms which he cannot reach. What wonder that, to hold their attention, he will do and say the most amazing things which at first sight seem to be sheer, wilful naughtiness if we did not know the motive that sets them going/’