ENTRE NOUS.

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 722, 2 May 1914, Page 10

ENTRE NOUS.

COMPLAINTS multiply regarding drunkenness on the Main Trunk expresses. Men leaving Wellington are sometimes so glad to get away l : or a bit that they celebrate too exuberantly before they leave; and so with many leaving Auckland. Then there are the roving blades of the King Country, who fall on the train like an avalanche and shake it like a rattle. There need be no difficulty if special provision were made to accommodate women travelling alone. On every long-distance train there should be compartments reserved for women, just as there are . compartments reserved for smokers. Women away from home are often nervous, and the genial souls in liquor annoy and embarrass them. Nothing more than' that is to be feared. Some of the sober men are more dangerous than the drunken ones. * * * * A woman writes to London "Votes for Women" on the disadvantages of bavin? children :—"I know one woman who had eight children;' she tried to get rooms when she had only seven, and was several times turned out by the landlord. When the eighth came it was worse. At last her husband suggested that when asked how many children she had she should say 'One, over seven.' So she fot a room. She took one child with er, got four l in in large boxes with holes made in them, nad left three with neighbours and got them in one at a time after dark. She used to take them out one at a time for a walk after dark. When it was found out, through someone noticing she was taking out different sized children, that she had,taken the landlord in, she was ttirned, out again. I have lost sight, of them now, but once or twice I sheltered them when they were in a great fix for rooms." * # * * That is a matter New Zealanders might profitably note. We talk a lot about the population problem; but here as the working woman with children is at a disadvantage. Despite -our dearth of servants, the young woman with a baby finds it hard to get a situation. The plums of the present life are for the people who abstain from having families. i * * * * "Votes for Women," by the way, is as wrong-headed as ever. Mrs. Pankhurst and Miss Sylvia Pankhurst, both temporarily released from gaol after hungerstriking, were arrested by the police when they commenced openly to take part again in organised disturbance and disorder. Had they refrained from that, the police would never have interfered with them. But' "Votes for Women" waves wild arms, and Bhrieks: . "It is impossible to exaggerate the gravity of these. events. Neither of the prisoners was doing anything illegal at the time of arrest. Neither had done, since her

last imprisonment, anything illegal for which proceedings were being taken. The arrests were being carried out in pursuance of the scandalously wide powers conferred by the Cat and Mouse Act, which gives the Executive the right to arrest over and over again prisoners released. in consequence of the hunger strike. We say emphatically that such proceedings are flagrantly against public * * * * It is not against public morals, you will note, to smash the windows and destroy the property of priyate persons, to burn historic churches., and to slash great works of art that are without possessors and the property of the world. The trouble is that the suffragettes, hopelessly' biassed and distraueht, have no glimmer of the sense of humour. An infinite tolerance has been extended to the suffragettes. They are allowed to talk sedition and to print sedition. But the more license they get, the .more they want. * * * * But the women can see shrewdly and talk sense when they get for a moment clear of the mists of their mania. Some of our suffragette-sympathisers in New Zealand are all for the lash in the case of offences against women. The women at the head of the suffragette movement hold other ideas. "Votes for Women" says: "We are glad to see a protest made by prominent women, most _ of whom are well-known suffragists, against the flogging clauses in the White Slave Act. . This inhuman provision is quite useless, and only serves to hypnotise men into thinking they have done their duty by women in this matter. The real remedy, which has never "been attempted, is to strike at the roots of the traffic by attacking it on its financial' side." Even the suffragettes are wise enough to See that the lash is a senseless barbarity, to say the least of it. * * * . ■* Equally barbarous, at times, is the English law's way of dealing with women. _In England recently a woodman who pinched: a married woman on the cheek and threatened her with'a shovel was fined half-a-crown; while a. man who stuffed paper into the suction-pine of a gas engine was sent •to gaol for three months. Another man who committed a ferociously brutal assault on his wife was Sentenced to two months' imprisonment; while a labourer who set fire to a stack was sent to penal servitude for seven years. A man who was fiendishly cruel to a dog was fined ten shillings, and a valet who merelv altered a cheque got three years. Property counts for much with some English judge®. and humanity counts for nothing. * * * * * Auckland "Observer" calls our so-call-ed Social Democrats "red miners." It is a neat touch of description. » » * * A private New York "maternity home" has made a record even in its own deplorable business. On the premises it kept a crematorium, in which the bodies of dead women were consumed. You mav call that doing things thoroughly. * * '* * In Sydney now they are clamouring to have the bosky and fragrant Botanical Gardens open on summer nights. It is apoarentlv felt that something should be done by Biljim to hearten up the "Eu^enists.

Of the British collection of pictures at the Auckland Exhibition, two were sold —a three-guinea etching and a photograph. The etching was bought by a visitor from outside. * * * * Talking about hair, it is* reported that baldness among women is increasing; but they are still unable to grow whiskers. * * * * A -propos of that cable but a' few weeks ago stating that Kaiser Wilhelrn had forbidden the wives of German officers to ride astride, there has been, some controversy on the subject in London. "A medical correspondent" wrote to the London "Times" to point out that the Kaiser's order "will afford satisfaction to all who realise the dangers of this absurd fashion. It is no exaggeration to say that a woman who habitually rides astride endangers her health and courts disaster which, though long delayed, may be of a very tragic kind. Woman, as the of the race, must on no account'jeopardise her ability to perform the function of motherhood safely and efficiently. The strain accompanying the new 'seat' tends to displace certain vital organs, or at least to render their supports insecure." A day or two later another anonymous . medical correspondent wrote to the Same paper, quoting from "an expert riding master" to prove thiat. riding astride was not the safest seat for a woman. * * * * Following on this, "Votes for Women," the ' suffragettes' paper, took the matter up, "in view," as it states, "of the popular tendency to find plausible reasons for limiting the activities of women." This paper interviewed Mr. C. Mansell-Moul-lin, F.R.C.S., M.D., a well-known physician and surgeon, who said: "The medical correspondent (anonymous) who rushes into print with wild statements about absurd fashions, dangers to health, and tragic disasters in the future, simply shows how ignorant and how prejudiced he is. As a. matter of fact, the Sidesaddle is quite a modern invention. Our ancestresses, the mothers of the men who made England what it is, knew nothing of it; and at the present day the finest races of women the world has ever seen, and the mothers of the finest men. all ride astride." A lady medico. Dr. Flora Murray, added that the crosssaddle was a _ great _ advantage, in that the spine might assume its natural

curves, instead of the twist required by the side-saddle'.. -The same paper also gathered from a leading .firm of London that the proportion of their, customers riding astride had almost doubled in the last two years as compared with the two previous years. * * * * ... All this is very interesting. But medon. the subject is quite beside the real question as to whether women shquld ride astride/ The true objection to women riding astride on horseback is the same that applied when the bicycle finst came into vogue. It is purely and' simply a matter of—well— good taste, and' those who trot out -medical opinions are; only affecting another excuse for their prudishness. * * * # Some alarming statements were made by the Wellington "Evening Post" on ferent race from the previous day, and Wack type "The Evils of Australian Wine. These constituted a special message to the "Post" arid emanated from the far North as the result of a deputation that waited on the Prime Minister, asking that restriction be placed on the sale of "Australian" wine. One of the deputation's spokesman according to thi& "special," stated 'that during the last few months there had one death and several accidents whichj it was alleged, were due to the drinking of 'Australian' wine. . . The use of this wine was causing a great deal of harm m the North: It was debauching the Natives, and it was disgraceful that it should b© allowed to continue." Further reported in the same message that Premier Massey Baid that "he had heard and read a great deal about the use of Australian wine, and if other members of Parliament were of his opinion a stop would be jiut to what was going on. Too much evil had already been caused by this wine to allow it to continue." The very next day the "Post" came out with a London cable stating that the Wine Trade Club has tasted a number of Australian, Calif omian, and South African wines, and had decided that the Cawarra (Australian) was head and shoulders above the others. These two messages appear rather incongruous, those who know Gfumland or .North Auckland are wondering whether Austrian and Australian has been confused. Whatever it is, the Australian vineyards not improbably will down on the perpenot improbably will be down on the perpetrator with both feet together.