CHIT CHAT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1106, 12 May 1893, Page 18

CHIT CHAT.

The birthday ball, to be given by Lord and Lady Glasgow on the 24th, will be a grand affair. Over 600 invitations have been issued.

The Government House party have been very liberal in their patronage of the Gaiety Company. Every night somebody has been present from Government House. Mr Musgrove, the manager, had supper with Lord and Lady Glasgow at Government House last Sunday.

I wonder when we shall see lady doctors practising in New Zealand. I don't count Mrs Dr Potts. She is an American product and a doctor of a very different class to those of whom Mrs Anderson writes. There is no reason why many of our bright New Zealand girls should not adopt medicine.

So the oft reported engagement of the Princess May of Teck to Prince George is now un fait accompli. Her Majesty is reported to be well pleased with the news, and the Navy, in which Prince George has done good work, is said to be quite enthusiastic.

Prince George Frederick Ernest Albert, for that is the Prince's name in full, was born at Marlborough House on June 3rd, 1865. Princess 'May ' —Victoria Mary Augustine Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes is the daughter of Prince Teck and Princess Teck (Princess Mary Adelaide, who was the daughter of the first Duke of Cambridge, Her Majesty's uncle). Princess May, as Princess Victoria is familiarly called, was born in 1867, and is therefore two years younger than her fiance. According to those who are honoured with a personal acquaintance with them, both Prince and Princess are of a most amiable temperament, and it is to be hoped, both for their own sake and that of the country, that the match may prove a very happy one. Every loyal subject of Her Majesty will wish Princess May and Prince George long life and happiness.

The Bishop of Bedford in an article on 'Urban's Populations,' in the same review, takes a less pessimistic view of social reform than do some writers. He says there is a more healthy public opinion which regulates behaviour and conversation than formerly. The factories where girls work are altogether different from what they were. It is no longer impossible for a respectable plumber or glazier, for example, to do work in such premises without being put to shame and distressed Look at the streets in the lowest neighbourhood, and compare their state with what was their condition ten years ago. There is infinitely less trade in vice than there was. Young girls of the 'fallen class are not so numerous. The fallen are not encouraged and harboured by parents as formerly. If moral deterioration cannot be altogether banished, still there can be no doubt we are witnesses of a groat improvement,

Mr W. Freeth, eldest son of Mr George Freeth, an old Marlborough resident, was married at Picton Eoad (Blenheim), on the 26th ult, to Miss Fitch, eldest daughter of Mr Charles Fitch, of Blenheim. The ceremony was performed at the residence of the bride's parents by the Eev B. J. Allsworth.

In the first report of the Women's Branch of the Horticultural College at Swanley, Kent, it is mentioned that several applications have been'received for women head gardeners, and in one case to tdke entire charge of the conservatories and greenhouses. The Duchess of Newcastle heads the list of names on the Council, other ladies being Mrs Garrett Anderson, M.D,, Mrs Walter McLaren, Miss Buss (of the North London Collegiate School), Miss Maitland (of Somerville Hall), Miss Welsh (of Girton College), and Miss White (of Alexandra College, Dublin). As the Women's Branch is quite without funds or endowments, it is thought desirable to raise subscriptions for scholarships, many women who are anxious to take up the work, being unable to afford the fees. The students are trained in all branches of fruit, vegetable, and flower culture, as well as taught how to make jam and fruit juices. Lessons are also given in bottling, tinning, crystallising, and evaporating fruit. Two sisters, who gained the highest place/on the diploma list at the examinations in botany, chemistry, theory of horticulture, book-keeping and physics, were at once engaged by a local nurseryman for greenhouse work.

Miss Catherine Spence, for 40 years on South Australian Begister staff, and who has much boomed the Hare voting system in South Australia, is a wonderful woman. Although 67 years old, Miss Spence is about to tour the world, mainly to study education systems, electoral law, insurance matters, and the tangled silver question ! —Bulletin.

Now that the Princess May is really to marry the Prince George, her father becomes more of a ' somebody' than he has hitherto been. His wife, the Princess Mary Adelaide is a very stout, good natured lady, who is very popular with English society, but the Tecks have been miserably poor—for royalties—and have had to keep a good deal in the background. The London correspondent of the Argus gives some interesting gossip about the Duke of Teck. He says:—Of late the Prince of Wales has made a point of being conspicuously civil to the Duke of Teck. The latter's name now appears often in the list of guests at Marlborough House dinner parties. The Duke is shortly to be made a General in the British army also. He saw some fighting with his regiment of blue Austrian Hussars in the Solferino campaign, Shortly afterwards he made an expedition to this country, and paid assiduous court to Miss Dundas-Christo-pher-Hamilton-Nisbet, the greatest heiress in England, about year 1865. lam not positively certain what the young lady's name was at that time, for the family name has twisted, waxed, and magnified very frequently, owing to inheritance of different estates from different relations. I believe the father began as a rich Lincolnshire squire named merely Christopher. He was at all events supposed, thirty years ago, to have an income, from land in England an Scotland, of a year. Whether his only daughter would ultimately have married the Duke of Teck or not is uncertain. The legend runs that one morning, while the Duke was staying at one of the Hamilton-Nisbet places in Scotland, a letter was handed to him at the breakfast table. It was in English. The Duke could not then read English, so to show his frank confidence in the object of his admiration, he asked her to read it for him. It was an order from the Queen, advising him not to marry Miss Hamilton-Nisbet, because the Princess Mary of Cambridge was now available. The poor Duke instantly fled from the house.

In the Fortnightly Beview for March Mrs (Dr) Garret Anderson tells the story of the movement in favour of opening the medical profession to one-half of the human race that is most eminently qualified for the care of the sick. She gives Mrs Blackwell credit of initiating the movement, but due homage to the indomitable energy of Dr Jex Blake. The battle, however, is now almost won. In the sixteen years which have elapsed since 1877 much more progress has been made. In the place of one examining body prepared to give women a diploma there are now six, and instead of one medical school there are now eight. About forty-five qualified medical women are now practising in London, and one hundred and

forty-four are on *he medical register. Many are making a good start in the provincial towns. They are holding posts under the Asylums Board, in the infirmaries, in children's hospitals, as inspectors of boarded-out children, as medical officers to the female employes at the General Post Office, London, and at the Liverpool and Manchester Post Offices. A considerable number of the women who have been qualified as medical practitioners have gone to India, China, South Africa, and Australia.

Miss Clementina Black in a very brief paper in the Nineteenth Century explains why girls hate domestic service, although it is better paid and is lighter work than in the factory. The chief reason is that a servant girl lives in a position of total personal subservience. She is despised, not because she does menial work, but because she puts herself under another person's beck and call. She is practically removed from her own circle and placed in another. She is exposed to much greater temptations than ordinary workers, and Miss Black says that if she were the mother of girls who had to- choose between the factory and domestic service, she would unhesitatingly choose the factory. The only change that she can suggest is that servants should come and work for a specified number of hours a day, as dressmakers and charwomen already do. She thinks there is a great future open for the women who will be able to organise a capable brigade of outdoor servants.

We New Zealanders must remember, however, in reading what English writers have to say on the servant girl question, that the circumstances are very different here, The colonial servant girl has not much to complain of as regards liberty, she is not expected to be • servile.' There is a good deal however to be said for the 1 outdoor servant' idea here in the colonies where house room is limited.

One of the most interesting events that has i taken place at Wainui-o-mata for a long time come off on Wednesday evening week in the schoolhouse. The occasion was a farewell concert and presentation to Mr A. N. Burns, the teacher there for the past two years and a half, who was lately appointed first assistant at Lower Hutt. The chairman of the school committee, Mr R. Dick, presided. Quite an artistic concert was given by Mesdameß Burdan and Wood, Misses Prouse, Wakeham, Mcllvride and Wilson, and Messrs Wood and Willoughby. At the conclusion of the concert the chairman, on behalf of the residents of the valley generally, presented Mr Burns with a Rotherham silver hunting watch, suitably inscribed, as a token of the esteem in which he was held and his highly satisfactory conduct of the school. Mr Dick said that Mr Burns had not only raised the school to a high state of efficiency, but had also endeared himself to the scholars and taken an interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of the district. Mr J. Wakeham and Mr James Wood, the chairman of the late committee, also spoke favourably of the recipient's work. Mr Burns suitably acknowledged the gift and the compliments paid him. An hour's social amusement concluded the proceedings. Notwithstanding the inclement weather the school was crowded.