SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19513, 17 December 1926, Page 9

SOCIAL NEWS.

Mr,, and Mrs. J. Dempster, of Wellington, are visiting Auckland. Mrs. G. P. T, 0. Swaboy hfts taken up her residence in Victoria Avenue. Mrs. Fitzgerald, of Dunedin, sailed by the I'ainui ou .a visit to England. Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Fisher, of Wellington, are on a visit to Auckland. Mrs. D. F. Lano and Mrs. Bav, Wellington, are staying at the Grand Hotel. Commander B. do Salis, R.N., and Mrs, de Salis are staying at the Hotel Cargen. Dr. W. A. Gunn and Mrs. Gunn leave ; on Monday for Timaru, where they will spend the* holidays, Miss Margot Bloomfield is returning by the Niagara, on Monday from Sydney after an extended visit abroad. Dr. T. W. J. Johnson and Mrs. Johnson leave next week for Taupo, where they will spend the Christinas holidays Mr. and Mrs, Thornton Jackson, with j their family, left yesterday for Russell, where they will spend the Christmas holidays. Mrs., J. Binsted, accompanied by Miss Joy Binsted, left bv the Tahiti from Wellington on a visit to her sou at Raro tonga. Mrs. E. Marks, who has been visiting her mother, Mrs,, J. Hayman, Gillies Avenue, is returning to Melbourne at the beginning of tho week. The Commune of Waret-L'Evequie, in the province of Liege, which has 913 inhabitants, is the only one in Belgium where the voting list comprises the names of women only. The seven candidates for the current municipal election are all housewives. ! During avisifcjto the Imperial Institute, South Kensington, the Queen was so much impressed with the beauty of a piece of damask that shet ordered the furniture in Buckingham Palace to be renovated in similar material, 'the material was made by Sir Frank Warner from sLk cocoons provided by the. peasants of Cyprus. By this practical means the Queen gave a tremendous fillip to the ancient silk industry of Cyprus, one of the silk-produc-ing countries being fostered by the Imperial Institute'!! Advisory Committee on Silk Production. Her Excellency Lady Alice Fergusson paid a visit to the Campbell Free Kindergarten on Wednesday morning, much to t.he delight of the children, in whom she took the keenest; interest. After 'watching them at their games and play the children sang for her and then Her Excellency talked with them, A tour rpund the classrooms was. made, and finding one of the-classes at a drawing lesson Her Excellency did some work with them. On arrival Lady Alice was received by the committee of the kindergarten and was presented with a bouquet by ono of the children. The big tobacco firms must, have added immensely to their revenue since smoking became a feminine habit, because nowadays the woman who does not smoke is almost as great an exception as one who wears long hair. And most lady smokers are prone to indulge to excess. But they seem to eschew the pipe or tbs cigar, and favour the gasper, smoked now by the smartest women through long coloured holders a la Prince of Wales. Yet there were women cigar- smokers before George Saudis, and, apart from old Irish women who nursed nose-warmers, some women smoked pipes generation ago. A problem with which missionary societies are now faced is that, while it is impossible to get sufficient young men to go to obscure parts of the world to teach the Gospel, over IQO per cent., more women than are needed aro continually applying. All kinds of women volunteer to go to the wild parts, of Africa; Japan, China, or Canada—women with degrees in theology and medicine, educationists, women with means but with no qualification!!, and even servant girls. The Church Missionary Society regretfully turns, down scores of these applications annually. Yet this society has at present 453 single women missionaries as against 416 single men. This is apart from 331 married men who have their wives working with them as missionaries. Although the remarkable business record of Mrs. A. J. Wilson has been written about at considerable Icingth, as befits a woman who began as temporary typiste at 30s a. week and has risen to be managing director in the same house, there is one astonishing activity of hers of which no mention has beAi made. This is the fact that she helped Mr, Wilson to found the motor and cycle trades benevolent fund 21 years ago. "Seeing that it. has only just achieved its majority," Mrs Wilson says, "I think you will agree with- mi! that it is one of the finest benevolent funds we have for its age, for we have £50,000 invested; we run a children's home, where wo have 32 little ones, and we give away every month sums which may reach £2(300. Moreover, we never have to go outside our own people to get what money we need, for it always comes pouring in.'"