SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20842, 8 April 1931, Page 14

SOCIAL NEWS.

Miss M. Bowling, of Wanganui, is visit ing Auckland.

Miss P. Reid, ol Remuera, has re turned from a trip to Rotorua.

Aliss Fowkes and Miss J. Fowkes, of Kemuera, are visiting Wanganui.

Miss Barbara Stedman, of Auckland, is the guest of Mrs. M. Earle, "Wanganui.

Miss Girlie Leatherbarrow left yesterday by the Aorungi for a short holiday in Suva.

Mrs. Bowen Clendon, of Thames, is visiting Auckland and is staying at Hotel Cargen.

Miss Olive Firth, of New Plymouth, is the guest of Mrs. Lance Tompkins, of Hamilton.

Mrs. J. E. Close, of Clifton Road, Takapuna, has returned from a short visit to Whangarei. *

Lady Robertson and Miss Joan Robertson returned last evening from a brief visit to Wanganui.

Miss Veda Nelson, of Auckland, is visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Nelson, of Rosedkle, Woodville.

Mrs. E. G. W. Tibbits, of Whangarei, has been* spending Easter with her daughter, Mrs. Fred Knight, at Papakura.

Mrs. M. K. Chandler, of Rotorua, accompanied by her daughter, Mrs. F. C. Symes, of New Plymouth, is visiting Auckland.

Miss Dorothy Hawkes, of Heme Bay, has left for a visit to Wellington, where she is the guest of Mrs. R. Brown, of Lyall Bay.

Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Williamson and Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Williamson, with their daughter, left yesterday by the Aorangi for Vancouver.

Miss Gale, late matron of the Paparoa Hospital, left on the s.s. Aorangi for a visit to England and the Continent via United States of America.

Miss Constance Scott-Shaw, of Manurewa, is visiting Wellington where she will be joined by her mother, Mrs. ScottShaw, toward the end of April.

Easter visitors to Hotel Cheltenham include Mrs. G. W. Gower and family, of Hamilton; Mrs. Ratcliffe and son, Hamilton, Mr. and Mrs. Deverell, Te Aroha; Mrs. Paul and family, of Cambridge.

Mrs. F. Chenery Suggate, of the New Hebrides, who has been staying with Mrs. Arthur Boult, left by the Southern Cross, Melanesian Mission steamer, for the New Hebrides.

Mrs. Martin and Miss Martin, of St. Andrew's Road, Epsom, who, with Mr. and Mrs. W. Dulihanty, of Papatoetoe, have been staying at Ocean Lodge, Mount Maunganui, Tauranga, have returned to Auckland.

Many visitors spent Easter at Kavau and a great number of yachts and launches cruised around the islands and the various bays. Great interest was taken in a tennis tournament which was won by Miss Brewin, of Auckland, with her partner, Mr..-Willis, of London.

The gnnual meeting of the Otorohanga branch of the Women's Division of the New Zealand Farmers' Union was held this week. There was a good attendance of members. A letter from the Dominion president was read and was much appreciated. When the branch was formed in October, 1930, six members were enrolled. Since then membership has steadily increased. A " bring ana buy" stall added 18s 6d to the community chest fund. Afternoon tea, provided by members, brought an enjoyable meeting to a close.

Interesting accounts of the Uvea of the women of Jugoslavia are given, by Miss Grace Ellison, the traveller and author, in an overseas paper. Hitherto, she says, the women of Jugoslavia have counted little in public life, but they are now beginning to organise schools and other institutions for the benefit of the poorer people. The women marry young as »■ rule ar>d have some quaint and charming wedding customs, one of these being the wearing of a marriage crown, to which custom the bridegroom also has to conform.

A woman doctor with a splendid war record is Dr. M. Stewart Webb, who has been on the staff of the Johannesburg School Clinic since 1920. Dr. Webb qualified in 1915 and went as Army surgeon with the Serbian Army in July of that year. She was in the Serbian retreat of 1915 and was awarded the Serbian Order of St. Sava. When the British Army asked for women doctors to go to Majta in 1916 she joined up as a civil surgeon attached to the R.A.M.C. and was later sent to Salonika, where she was at the 63rd General Hospital.

The death of Lady St. Helier at the age of 86 has removed one of the last of the great Victorian hostesses, states a London writer. She was the widow of a very famous Judge, Sir Francis Jeune, who was created Lord St. Helier. But she owed her fame less to her husband than to her own attractive personality. She was of Highland descent—a Mackenzie of Seaforth —and when she came to London as a young girl Dickens and Disraeli were alive. She even knew Mrs. Norton, the famous beauty who. so people said, was the original of Meredith's "Diana of the Crossways." She could tell of talks with Dickens and Bulwer Lytton, and of a long friendship with Disraeli. But her interests were more than social. She was an ardent philanthropist, and after her husband's death she took a house in the East s End and devoted herself to work for the education of the deaf, blind, or mentally deficient children. So she carries from the world not only & sheai of memories which seem to us of a later day incredibly remote, but also the record of steady beneficence.

In conjunction with the New Zealand Women's Association of New South Wales Mrs. Maclurcan arranged a dance at the Wentworth Hotel, Svdijey, to help the Lord Mayor's earthquake relief fund. The organisers had just cause to be proud of their efforts. There was not a dull moment. The Governor, Sir Phillip Game, with Wing-Commander Gifford, was in attendance, and with him was Miss N. Craig. Mrs. Stanley Hempton, president of the ball committee, and of the New Zealand Women's Association, with Sister M. L. McDonald, hon. secretary, received His Excellency. Also in the official set were the Lord and Lady Mayoress, Sir Henry and Lady Braddon, Alderman and Miss Marks, Dr. J. ,S. Purdy, Mr. L. G. Schmitt (New Zealand Government Commissioner), Mrs. Schmitt and Mr. Hugh Ward. Major M. S. Cameron thanked Mrs. Maclurcan for her kindness, and Mrs. Hempton thanked the staff and orchestra, who gave their services. A New Zealand girl from Stillwater gave a large box of chocolates to be raffled, which brought £ll 6s 6d. The proceeds of ths dance amounted to £l3O.