NOTES FROM LONDON

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7450, 26 May 1911, Page 9

NOTES FROM LONDON

TfiOH OUE LADY COEEESPONDENT. LONDON, April BIRTHRATE PROBLEMS. Said Dr .1. F. Butler Hogan, medical officer/ for health for Tottenham, in his report on tfio health of tho district: “It is, unfortunately, only too true that a gramaphone has become more necessary in many homes than a. cradle, and that the Inhabitants of our popular centres have many of them hearts so sterile of child Ipvo or racial need that they refuse to be burdened with life’s real riches. “But understand this; the question is ono of national importance. As a matter of fact, there aro numbers of intelligent men and women hero and elsewhere whose offspring would provide just The class that would bo of use to the State, yet theso are tho very people who shirk- their responsibilities as parents and citizens. “Tho multiplication of the unfit goes on.” • “Even in this district, with its population of 150,000," added Dr Hogan, “it is noticeable that the birthrate amongst tho very poor is nearly five times as high as amongst tha. class which is usually designated /comfortably off!’” AN INFANTS’ HOSPITAL. There is, in Vincent square, an infants* hospital • built and equipped bv a Mr Robert Mond as a memorial to Ins wife, who has taken deep interest in tliis work. Little ones suffering from tho diseases and disorders of malnutrition are the patients, and the hospital is a centre for the treatment of infantile diseases and for tho prevention of the conditions responsible for tuberculosis and other physical imperfections. Thor© are fifty cots in constant use, ten isolation cots, a lecture theatre, and laboratories. IDEAL LIFE FOR WOMEN. Miss Stafford Northcote is one of the most prominent and successful women ■ farmers in this country, and owns a beautiful dairy farm of her own at. Rogato. At first Miss Northcote undertook almost all kinds of work on th© farm, it being what is known as a “mixed farm/-’ but, finding that dairy-farming pur© and simple pays best, she now entirely confines herself to supplying milk by contract to a. firm. She works early and late, getting up at four or five during tho summer and going on through the day. She attends to the poultry, in the season she takes part in the haymaking, and in the autumn helps with tho mangels. • Miss Northcote declares that for a woman who possesses health and strength. the life is a delightful ono, and that women can help in almost all tho work, except ono or two things, such as ploughing and rick-building, which call for too much strength. Also, she admits that women aro at a disadvantage in a market buying and selling cows. BILLS CONCERNING WOMEN. Mr Philip Snowden, M.P., presented Bills on Monday afternoon to enable women to enter for appointments in the Civil. Service other than those in tho Post Office; to render the dismissal of teachers on their marriage; and to give women a claim for maintenance from their husbands without the intervention of the Poor Law authorities. '-MBS SOBYs, who, it is said, is the first white woman who has travelled'in the wilds of Africa j without a white escort, and who' has been out in New Zealand, has just returned from Central Africa. She is tho wife # of a distinguished brain specialist residing in Japan, and has had, for a woman, a remarkably adventurous career. / Sho has explored many districts in China where no white woman had ever been before, and has travelled widely in Japan and America. She was at Mukden during the RussoJapanese war, \in boy’s clothes, and went out to Australia os a. nursemaid in order to study the problems of domestic service. A WOMAN ARCHITECT. It, is good news to those interested in watching what women can do in tho world to hear —after the disappointing conclusions of a masculine orator at the Women's Congress last year, that women did not take well to architecture as a profession—that there is in New York a very successful woman architect —Miss Fay Kellog. Medicine, according to an article iu the “Daily Telegraph,”

first claimed her attention, but while pursuing her studies she devoted muen time to drawing and mathematics, with the. result that when she exhibited some of her work to tho authorities of the Pratt Institute they broke all records and admitted her to their architec.ural course. Here she not only made. up two years' work in one, but acquired so much facility that she .now writes her own specifications, even lor the plumbing and boilers of a house. After a period ox training in an office, she made her way to Paris, where she I was the pioneer who obtained entrance 1 to tho Beaux Arts Architectural course for women. At first the authorities flatly refused to accept her. Lndauntcd, she even went to the head of the institute, only to meet the same adamantine denial. She quietly went on with her art studies, and was lucky enough to meet a deputy from one of the departments in the .South of I ranee, lie was amused at her zeal, but came to .see that she had some right on her side. Ho got a law passed within ton days alter her request admi-ttinc women to the course at the Beaux Arts. Since she has been in business for hersclx in New York she has done much good work. She remodelled block of five-storey buildings in New York, and though she has a distinct reputation for bungalows, she aspires to sky-scrapers. Architecture, Miss JCellog thinks, ih a profession suited to women. They are naturally homemakers, and from their practical experience they ought to know just what is necessary for comfort, and should be able to make the best of available space and material. WOMAN’S “FITNESS.” In a letter to “Tho Times” yesterday Mr Richard Whiteing, the well-known writer, says concerning women’s intellectual fitness for a vote: “And, besides, what has the more in-tollec-uial qualification to do with tbe matter? Tho more women differ from men iu the point of view the greater the need of their co-operation at the polls. Tho vote is-not a pass in a public examination; it is an. attribute of citizen-! ship. None of us get it because we are i virtuous, or pre-eminently intellectual; our claim is on the broad foundation of tlio rigat to have our say in public affairs.” SCHOOL MOTHERCRAFT. A somewhat novel scheme of teaching what. Lady Meyer recently, aptly called “Mothorcraft” is in vogue, in one of tho schools iu the Tottenham district. Tho scheme is a three years’ one, and two afternoon sections weekly are devoted to it. Practical demonstrations are given by the teacher on ono afternoon, and thol other is? devoted to practical work by the girls, when each one does for herself tho washing and dressing of a celluloid baby doll, preparing and cleaning bottles, cutting out and making clothes, mending and darning, firstaid, metal polishing, and very many other matters intimately connected with homo life. .Simple charts on infant feeding are hung on tho walls of seventh standard classrooms. SCIENTIFIC BABIES. A well-known doctor protested in no measured terms this week at the hothouse atmosphere in which he considers that many babies of the present day aro reared. Some mothers, he considers, bring up their children as if th© whole world was going to be one long summer day, fanned by a gentle sterilised breeze, and interrupted only by punctual meals of patent food stuffs. Molly-coddling and scientific feeding with carefully workedout diets in fractions of ounces will produce what he stigmatises a sort of spurious health. Bottle-feeding, ho says, decidedly spoils the good looks of a baby, the indiarubber mouthpiece disorganising tno muscles of the face by developing sonic of them abnormally. A DECIDED ADVANCE. The Leeds Corporation on Wednesday night passed, by a large majority,* a I resolution in favour of granting the Parliamentary franchise to women, WOMAN’S PLUCKY FEAT. From Paris yesterday came tho news' that Mine. Fleurier, the wife of a carpenter at Daurilly, accomplished a brave thing that *tho workmen, reiused to undei take on account of the danger attached. A weather vane, GO feet from the ground, had to be removed from the tower of a chateau, and when she heard that the men working there wore afraid to ascend Mine. Fleurier volunteered, and, climbing to the top of the tower, reached the vane and removed it. For four years the venturesome young woman has accompanied her husband on his travels, working alongside him and earning as much as 8s a day. THE IDEAL WOMAN. A Paris newspaper recently organised a competition to determine, on its readers' opinions, the ten most desirable attrioutes in woman. . . “Kindness of heart” leads with an enormous majority. Behind it, in order, come “devotion,”” “economy,” “intelligence.” “amiability,” “fidelity,” “patience/’ and “modesty.” The quality with the fewest votes is “application,” Immediately preceded by “numiuty” and “cleanliness.” LONDON, April 13. CHINESE LADY DOCTOR. Dr Yamei ICui. tho first Chinese woman to take a medical course and degree in the Western world, is staying in London for a few days, and was entertained- last week by a number of ladydoctors at the Lyceum Club. Dr Kui is in control of tho Government medical department for women in. North China, and is a deservedly famous figure in her own land. Sho studied medicine at tho Cornell University (New York), and, after obtaining her degree, practised for a short time in Japan before taking up her pro-' sent important position in China. She has, since her appointment, opened a hospital at Tiensin and several dispensaries, and ; there trained native women as nurses. Her work in* this direction has been remarkably successful, and at this moment she has left some thirtysix following out. under her assistants, the course that sho has laid down for them. A j-oung Manchu lady, who has been studying for the medical profession under her, has just entered for th© Johns Hopkins University course, and so great has been her influence in China that no fewer than forty-four are endeavouring to emulate her example by studying in America, while there ai*e

some thirty here, two of whom are at the School* of Tropical Medicine, where great things are expected as to their future careers. HAREM SKIRT CLUB. \ews from Saxony on Tuesday su'd that tho ha ran skirt has become so popular there that a ladies’ Ankle-Skirt Club lias been formed. . . On tho ground of the hygienic qualities of tho new skirt tho members are pledged to carry on active propaganda m its favour. , ■ An extensive tour is being organised to udvert.se the new mode, which will bo worn by all taking part in the tour. VOTES TOR RUSSIAN WOMEN. According to Reuter (St. Petersburg) tho Imperial Duma on Saturday dismissed tho Bill dealing with rural district administration, and adopted, a supplementary clause coni erring the franchise on women in these districts. THE QUEEN has consented to become the patroness of tho National Union of Women Workers of (Treat Britain and ixewid. a branch of which nourishes in New ncaiand. The governing body of the union is the National Council of Women, which was federated to the International Council of Women in 1897. WOMEN AND FRIENDSHIP. An excellent leader, based on a lecture given, some days ago, by Madame Marcello Tinayre on the above subject appeared recently in “The Times, irom wn-oh the following quotations may bo ol interest: "Women have, perhaps, a greater capacity for frienosinp tnan men; but they juive not normally the same opportunities for making ti-ieuds naturally or lor testing tnem coiiveii-eutiy. . ■ • They have to choose their friends deiibcrattiy from the first and to make overtures or a special intimacy, where men pass almost unconsciously trout the cooler to the warmer stages of friendship. So friendsliip. is far more of an adventure to u woman than to a maiu Women. of the world do not often fall into morbid excesses pi dia-lluskm-meut; but women of the world are rarer than men. Women’s experience oi life is both narrower and more intense. . . . When they are unmarried, and engaged in some work . • . they learn the rules of friendship as quickly as men, and . often make a far more exquisite art of "They are ready with all the pretty formalities but do not demand them. "They are the best of all friends, and prove *it is only circumstances which make so many female friendships precarious." A SUFFRAGE PROCESSION is to be held on the Saturday before the Coronation, Mrs Pethick Lawrence announced at tins week’s reunion of the w.S.P.U. at which'societies in Europe, America, Australia, New .Zealand, Canada, and other parts of tho world will bo represented- They will march to the Albert Hall, where a meeting wjll be hold, and they are to have on the platform some of the colonial representatives who come to this country to attend tho Imperial Conference. NpVUL EDUCATION. Mr Gordon Selfridge, the well-known draper, took the chair on Tuesday, at a meeting of tho British Phrenological Society, and gave an interesting acooimt of hew he was bringing up Jus little girls and his boy to have a practical knowledge of the world.. In conjunction with his wife he has drawn up a list of 50 charaeteristxcfi such as might he expected to he found in the perfect man or woman, the list is hung up in thedr rooms and they know it by heart. The idea is that later in life, when they grow up and mix among people, they will almost unconsciously look for these characteristics, and find either their presence or absence. This, Mr Selfridge thinks, will help them to gain a good idea of a person’s character. A knowledge of current events is an important part of this scheme. THE CENSUS PROTESTWhatever view one may take, of Hie census protest it cannot bo denied that it added to tho gaiety of nations—and the pockets of pressmen! : I was told by one suffragette how four others took a vast deal of trouble to noso themselves picturesquely on the foot of the Sphinx on the Embankment at 5 a.m.- to help a sleepy photographer to get what turned out to be an excellent picture of these viligant supporters of the Feminist ‘Cause. Tales of woo from men protestors against this rebellion on the part of their wornen-foik poured in after census day, and some sad heads of hocuses, apparently wringing their hands with helplessness, actually appended notes -to the census papers. Tho ladies who indignantly scratched out "Head of the family” had their model in a Kingston supporter who claimed to be reported as such because her husband had not worked for years and she had had to keep him. f MME. CURIE’S DEMAND. Tho suffrage leaven is working on tho Continent with a ./vengeance. Witness tho report of Mine. Curio’s action in demanding that her daughter should be allowed to study at a boys’ Eycee! This, when a well brought up French gif-1 isn’t oven allowed to walk to a .girls Lyceo unattended! Picture tho dismay hi tho heart of the bourgoises French women at such an unheard of idea. LIGHTNING BEAUTIFYING. A somewhat novel sight is to bo witnessed in Paris at present to illustrate a new departure in developing the art of restoring freshness to faded checks. A beauty specialist in the fashionable Rue de Castaglione has exhibited in his shop window a woman of about 40 years of ago. She sits there motionless while tho crowd outside contemplates her with interest. ■ ■ The printed notice informs tho public that tho beauty specialist is about to operate on this woman and prospective patronesses are invited to follow the phases of the treatment and convince themselves, do visu, of the reality of the metamorphosis.WOMEN AND DIVORCE. The Marriage Law Amendment Bill presented in the House of Commons early this week by Mr J. M. Robertson, M.P., is one of the measures included in Lady MaoLaren’s “Women’s Charter.” Its object is to place both sexes. on the same footing in regard to grounds for divorce, as is tho case under the law of Scotland. , • It amends the law relating to guardianship of children by placing husbands and wives on an equal footing. It also seeks to assimilate the law of England with that of Scotland in legitimatising children by subsequent marriage of the father and mother.