WOMAN'S WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18040, 15 March 1922, Page 10

WOMAN'S WORLD.

SOCIAL raws. Dr. and Mrs. F. J. ißayner are on a vias to Rotorua, Mrs. T. Savags hi returned from a visit to Christchtrcb. Mrs. J. Fraser has taken up her resideflce iu Clifton Road, Takapima, Miss Cuff and Miss K. Sharland are apending a short holiday at Okoroire. Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Donald and Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Porter are visiting Rotoma. Mrs S. Thomas, who has been staying in the South Island, has returned to Auckland Mr. and Mrs. Edward Russell are at present the guests of Mrs. T. G. Russell, Christchurch. Mrs. Roy Tole is visiting Wellington, where she is staying with her mother, Mr?. Tweed. Mrs. H. H. Partridge is visiting Now Plymouth, where she is the guest of Mrs. Henry Weston. Mrs. E. T. Warren and her daughter, Mrs. W. R. Mackcsey, aro spending a fewweeks at Titiraiigi. Mrs. J. Hartland is on a visit to Christchurch, and is staying with Mrs. Rutherford Mendip Hills. Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Spudding and Miss Spedding returned to Dunedin at the beginning of last week. Miss Dorothy Nolan, who has been visiting Mis. K. Williams, Tokomaru Bay, has returned to town. Dr. and Mrs. W. H. Parkes, who went to Wellington for the Medical Congress, tare returned to town. Mrs. J. L. Conlan, Epsom, has returned to Auckland after three months' holiday in the South Island. Mrs. Kingswell, who has boen visiting her mother, Mrs. G. Binney, Guisnes Court, has returned to Tauranga. Miss Mavis Brett has arrived from Rotorua, and is staying with Mrs. J. B. Maefarlane, Roslyu," Gillies Avenue. Mrs. Pearce, of Wanganui, is at present on a visit to Auckland, and is staying with her sister, Mrs. T. Wilkin, Princess Street. Mr. and Mrs, I. Nathan, of Hern* Bay, are arriving by the Uliinaroa from Sydney, where they have spent the last few months. Mr. W. R. Holmea and Miss Kathleen Holmes are leaving Auckland this week on an extended visit to Rotorua and Taupo, and thence to Wellington and Napier. Miss Etta Field, who has now completed" her course of studies under Madame Goosens, in Sydney, will shortly arrive in Auckland. Miss Field has lately been ringing at numerous concerts in Australia with conspicuous (success, and intends to give concerts iu the- principal cities in New Zealand. A worn-out theory that clever women do not often marry is utterly refuted by the marriage of probably the most learned woman in the British Isles, Dr. Mary Wdliams, to Dr. G. Arbour Stephens, the South Wa'es specialist, of Swansea. Dr. M;iry Williams was in October last appointed professor of modem languages to Swansea University College, and it was there that she met her husband. She was also the fi r st woman to be made a Fe'low of the University of Wales. Considerable interest is being taken in the patients of the Knox Home for Incurables at Tamalri by the Ladies' Visiting Comrcittee of that institution. On Saturday week, at Mm. Cecil Trevithick's instigation, a number of friends out about seven cars and took the patients I for a drive, after which Mrs. Trevithick I entertained them at afternoon tea at her house. The outing was much appreciated by the patients. This is the second occasion on which Mrs. Trevithick has shown such kindly interest in tie home. New York bag the first building in the world to be devoted exclusively to child welfare work,.states an exchange. The building was dedicated and formally presented by the city to the Board of Child We'fare and the dtizens. It is a twostorey structure lately remode'ed, and its interior is simply but effectively decorated. The wal's; are white, and on the second floor, which is given over to the dental clinks and examining rooms, the v e is the atmosphere of hosnita 1 san : tation, Already there are listed 27 000 children who wil' receive physical examinations and such treatment as is found necessary. The widowed mothers who are being aided by the city in order that they may keep th*ir children in homes rather than be compelled to replace them in institutions also will receive medical attention. The Ladies' Army and Navy Club, in Burlington Gardens, Bond Street, London, is more like a man's club than the Forum. Here the members are practically all the wives and daughters of service men, and they have none of the desire for information which is to be found in maiy women's clubs. It has 3000 members, not a few of whom come to the club only when their husbands are on leave from India, Egypt and other far-away parts of the Empire. The women politicians foregather at the Franchise Club, which was found sd in the 6tormy times of 1909, when only a strong minded woman dared W announce herself a suffragist. Nowadays the Franchise Club is quite conservative. Its subscription is only two guineas, and as the rooms in Grafton Street are very comfortabje and the food is exceptiona'ly g-od, it is popular with busy women who have not much time to spare for club life. Mrs. Terrill Watts is entering college at the age of 58, after she is already what the world might term a successful woman. Mrs. Mary Terrill Watts, of Audubon, lowa, is credited with having been the originator of the better Babies movement which has spread throughout the United States. She is enrolled in the University of Kansas for special studies, including eugenics, public speaking, feature writing and swimming. Mrs. Watt 3 has been an advocate of the fitter family plan launched last year in Kansas, a plan formed by Dr. Florence Sherbon, now of the K.U. faculty and formerly a pioneer in the lowa better babies movement. She is a very Jose friend of Dr. Sherbon, and is uir terested in the fitter family movement of Kansas. And it was be'eause of this movement, which was launched at the Topeka free fair in 1920 and which she intends to extend still further, that Mrs. V\ atts is taking studies at the University of Kansas. Two New Zealand lady tennis plavers— Miss Dons Fenwick, of Hawke's Bav and Miss M. H. Buin, of Christchurch—intend leaving shortly for Eng'and, where they wui arrive in time for the All-EngUgh Championships at Wimbledon, for which M P >! &b , ablv enter ' Miss Fenwick heNin^ tk T' L n,ad <V players in would r/°, ma L ke the fc,i P t0 E "S'a"<) make one r? 0 .! 1 have bee " elected to Wall wl I I C teau k visit New South n lad'l * Fe - nWck Wo " Welling! year, and w8? fc gma,n « of the finpton, carried off ft? Po *«. of WeiHawke's Bay \ £ %J™> and terbuiy's best-know H! JBJL&J* ladies have been given ; turn to Mr. Percy "W. Rootbim, wR" presents_ New Zealand on the Wwi Association at Horns, ° TenDl3

In the da.ys when Mayfair owed its name to the fnmous 14 days' fair held there, that disgraceful pa«6n, the Rev. Alexander Keith, made a fat living out of his chapel in Curzon Btreefc, where marriages were carried out in the Fleet prison style. It was here that the Duke of Kingston married the wife of the Earl of Bristol, the latter being still in the flesh; here that the Duke of Hamilton rushed at midnight with the beautiful Miss Gunning, and was accommodated with a bed-curtain rinjj for the ceremony; here that every imaginable tragedy and .disaster was cheerfully inceptctf so that it did but bring guineas to the capacious pockets of the Rev. Alexander. Among his other activities he kept a private register for the benefit of those desiring to repair their fortunes, buy social rank, or otherwise engage in a duel with fate. Her* are a few of the entries: —"A homely thing, who can read, cast accounts and make an excellent pudding. Only country parsons need apply." A very pretty young woman, but a good deal in debt. Would be glad to marry a momber of Parliament or a Jew." v ' A blood of the first rate, very wild and has run loose all his life; but is now broke and will prove very tractable." " Five Templars—all Irish. No one need bid for these lots of less than £10,000 fortunes."

At one time it did not seem to be thought necessary for girls and women to bo first-class 'swimmers, even though the average boy was, states an exchange. Now, however, girls and women go in for swimming and life-saving as much as men and boys, as is clearly evidenced by a visit to any of the beaches or baths. That is locally of course, but it is the same in England and other parts of the world. A recent English paper a gathering Of lady members of the Bath Swimming Club when an examination of candidates for the awards of the Royal Life Saving Society was held, the results showing that the entrant* had attained a high degree ot excellence. Lady Mary Ashley-Cooper, daughter of the Earl of Shaftesbury, and Miss Helen Bruce Dick, gaining the award of merit, and many others first-class awards. These honours arc by no means easily attained; to attain them the entrant must enter the water fully dressed in ordinary clothes, rescue a living- subject and carry her a distanco of twenty yards. They have to swim six hundred yards by three different styles of swimming, dive from the surface and bring up a weighted object from a depth of six feet. They also have to undress on the surface as well as divo from heights up to ten feet and provo their ability in scientific swimming such as floating and other methods useful in life saving. English womenfolk are great sports, and when they go in for anything, they do it in heart and soul fashion.

Not least of the modern woman's notable achievements is her breaking down of the barriers of masculine priviloge which shut her out from the learned profession. She has won the right to compete on equal terms with men in all fields where brain work is essential to success. But she has not achieved, and is very unlikely to accomplish, a success in any way commensurate with her numerical strength, earnestness of purpose or her intellectual accomplishments. Women members of the medical profession h.*.ve certainly not scored the success which their abilities entitl© them to ex* pect. They pass examinations brilliantly, jmt in practice fail to earn even a moderate income. Where a man and a woman are of equal ability in any profession, his income—if one may take that as a standard—is three times greater than hers. Why is this? It is not, or at any rate it is not mainly, because a man can endure prolonged stress and strain of which a woman is incapable. In any profession a puny man has an enormous advantage over the strong and vigorous woman. The prime cause of her failure is the fact that she is obviously a woman. If she could disguise her sex and put on the outward semblance of a man she would double her success. The finest and most incisive speech heard by the writer during four years at Oxford was made by a girl undergraduate, s who in appearance was small and feminine and ladylike and beautiful. The men who heard her were frankly amazed that a woman should possess such gifts. Yet in Oxford women's intellectual powers have long been recognised. The only remedy seems to lie in effective disguise; a fact recognised by many serious woman writers who, in oraer that their work shall be appraised at its true value, adopt a masculine nom de plume.

Y.W.O.A. NOTES.

At ihe monthly meeting of the board of directors of the Y.W.C.A. held last Friday, an encouraging report of the progress of the building of the new wing of the hostel was given. The outside work of the new whig should be completed in a fortnight's time, and a Furnishing Committee was therefore set up. It is Hoped that this increased accommodation will be ready about the middle of April. The girls of the hostel and the Hostel Committee are planning to have an opening "At Home" some time during the month of May. The dates of various opening events were also fixed. The established clubs have already begun work, while the opening rally for the winter's work, including classes and gymnasium, was fixed for the evening of Thursday, March 23. The opening women members' gathering for the year was fixed for Wednesday, April 5, at 2.30 p.m., and was arranged to take the form of an official welcome to Mrs. W. Todd Smith, who would be thus given an opportunity of furnishing a report of her two years experience abroad. It is hoped to continue these women's afternoons bi-monthly throughout the winter, on the last Wednesday of every month. It was also reported that Miss Jean Stevenson National industrial Secretary for the Y.W.C.A. of Australasia, would spend the month of May in Auckland, the chief part of her time being given up to a training course for volunteer workers. Further, that Miss Vera Hay had accepted the position of part-time senior department secretary for the winter months, and that during Miss Cbajipell's leave of absence Miss Page had consented to act as secretary for tie Customs Street Business Girls' Club. A motion of appreciation for the bequest of £300 made by the late Mr. Thomas Peacock was also passed. The directors expressed themselves as particularly grateful for gifts just now, when there was a growing need for work for girls in the city, and especially as at the present time the association is bearing a heavy financial obligation in increasing its hostel accommodation for the service of girls.

ENGAGEMENTS.

The engagement is announced of Miss Dorothy Spencer, only daughter of Mrand Mrs. Albert Spencer, Stanley Point, to Mr. D. J. Wallace, only «on of Mr. and Mrs. James Wallace, Queen's Parade, Devonport.

The engagement is announced of Miss Maude Walker, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. Y. Walker, of Waitara, to Mr. Norman Ogle, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Ogle, of Heme Bay, Auckland.