SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19389, 26 July 1926, Page 5

SOCIAL NEWS.

Their Excellencies the Governor-General and tady Alice Fergusson have consented to be present at the annual ball of the Canterbury Officers' Club, to be held in the Caledonian Hall, Christchurch, on Wednesday, August 11.

Miss I. M. MacLachlan, of London, is staying at Stonehurst.

Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, of Epsom, left Auckland on Friday for Rotorua.

Mr. and Mrs. W. Fergusson, of Wellington, are on a visit to Auckland.

Mrs. W. Gunn, of Christchurch, is visiting her son, Dr. Gunn, in Auckland.

Miss Esson, of Auckland, is on a visit to Wanganui, and is the guest of Mr. and Mrs. W. Esson, St. John's Mill.

The Misses Easdown, of Maurice Avenue, Remuera, are on a visit to Matamata and are the guests ot Mrs. Arthur Lambourne.

We are prone to think that the scientific woman is a twentieth century product, vet one hundred and fifty years ago Caroline Herschell was Assistant Astronomer Royal. She discovered eight comets,

Commodore Alistaiar Beal, whose term as commodore of the New Zealand Squadron is drawing to a close, and Mrs. Beal, are at the Hotel Careen. They leave at the end of the week for Wellington, where they will bo the guests of Their Excellencies at Government House.

Mrs. J. A. Lyons, wife of the Tasmanian Premier, recently achieved the distinction of being the first woman to sit at a meeting of the Federal Executive of the Australian Labour Party. She acted as deputy for her husband, who was detained at the Premiers' Conference.

The first war orphan to win the Returned Soldiers' League travelling scholarship in Australia is a girl, Miss Isabel Hxdgson, B.A. She recently finished her course at the Melbourne University, where she graduated brilliantly—that^course was also on a home R.S.L. scholarship. The youm* lady's father was killed at Gallipoli and her mother died not long ago. She will now go to Oxford.

So few British Royal babies have been born in April that the Duke of York's daughter is notable. Princess Mary, whose birthday is on April 25, is the only one of Their Majesties' children born in that month. Princess Maud, daughter of the Princess Royal, has a birthday on April 13, while Princess Beatrice, the Duke ot Connaught's sister, claims April 14 as the day for her birthday gifts.

Miss Ivy Harding-French, of Clay field, Brisbane, "has taken out a unique patent. Ever tine; 1 Bh<» was a tiny child she has loved and ir.adt pets of frogs, and she has now made a mascot toy, a frog of green velvet mounted on scarlet, and has given it the quaint name of " Billibong." All the London shops are selling the toy, and it is said that the Prince of Wales is numbered among the owners of " Billibong." Miss Harding-French is now living in Victoria.

Mrs. Netcher Newbury, who with her husband recently visited Tasmania, holds the heaviest life insurance policy of any living woman, the figure being £640,000. Mrs. Newbury runs a big departmental store in Chicago. When her first husband, who started the store, died about twenty years ago, she borrowed £240,000, which' at that time was the biggest loan ever granted to a woman in Chicago. She then remodelled and extended the business, the rosult of her pluck arid ability being that she is now one of the richest women in the United States.

On Wednesday, July 21, the Victoria League Ever Ready Committee gave a most enjoyable afternoon tea in tho league rooms in honour of Mrs. Preston Chambers and Mrs. Holland, who have been abroad for the last two years, and who were delegates "from the Auckland branch at tho Victoria League annual meeting, held at the Guildhall, London. The chairman. Mrs. J. B. Macfa,rlane, welcomed the guests and presented each with a posy of violets. Both guests gave most interesting descriptions of their travels in Great Britain and on tho Continent, and spoks of the wonderful kindnesses received from the Victoria League in England and Scotland. By a curious coincidence both Mrs. Chambers and Miss Holland were in Rome when St. Peter's Cathedral was illuminated for the first time for over 50 years.