NOTES FOR WOMEN

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11435, 3 February 1923, Page 10

NOTES FOR WOMEN

SOCIAL AND PERSONAL Mr R. S. D. Rankine, C.M.G., Chief Secretary to the Government of Nyasaland, and Mrs llnnkine, accompanied by Miss V. M. Dalzell, left for Sydney yesterday by the Manuka. They join the Sophocles at Sydney en route for Nyasaland via Durban. Dr. Danes (late act-ing-Consul for Czeeho-Slovakia in Sydney) and Mrs Danes, who were attending the Science Conference in Wellington, are visiting Mount Cook. Mrs Sydney Johnston, of Takapau, has gone to the South, Island. Miss Herriott, Canterbury College, has returned to Christchurch from Wellington, where she attended the Science Congress. Mr and Mrs W. W. Moeller, of this city, have gone south. Mrs Gerald Maling, who has been on a visit to Wellington, lias returned to Christchurch. Captain and the Hon. Mrs G. PittRivers have been the guests of Captain and the Hon. Mrs Tahu Rhodes (“Meadowbank”). The Hon. Mrs Pitt-Rivers is the daughter of the Go-vernor-General of the Australian Commonwealth v (Lord Forster). They left TimaTu for Mount Cook Hermitage on Wednesday. A Chris tchupoh exchange states that Lady Digbv and Lady Belper, who arrived in Wellington by the Moeraki, have gone south. They intend visiting Mount Cook. Mrs J. S. d’Emden, of Wellington, has gone to Hastings on- a visit to her : daughter, Mrs R. B. Sissons, Gallien street. Mr and Sirs Pike and their daughter, of Wellington, are visiting Mount Cook Hermitage. Miss Kate Stocker, of Wellington, is on a visit to Christchurch. The marriage was celebrated in Masterton of Miss Yollheim, daughter of Mr C-. Votlheim, of Kuripuni, to Mr Arthur R. Mills, of Masterton. Mrs H. Wyatt, of Christchurch, arrives to-day to visit Airs W. G. MacDonald, Wellington. When a New Zealand vocalist gives a recital in London it is not what her

many friends- and fellow countrymen in the audience think of her singing that chiefly concerns her, but what the hard and ruthless London critics have to say about her. Miss Kathleen Garten, dramatic contralto, was . fortunate in having a preliminary paragraph in the press written by Mr T. P. O’Connor, the famous journalist, and she appeared before quite a good audience at Wigmore Hall last week. She was assisted by a Spanish, violinist, Air Gelso Diaz, who shared equally in the applause forthcoming from a sympathetic audience. According to the “Daily Mail” Miss Garven “has a voice of good quality and power, and a range out of the ordinary-. . . With more training and experience she should make an excellent singer.” The erection of the Elmpire Alemorial Hostel, at Limehowse, London, of which Lady Patricia Ramsay is patron and the Dowager Lady Dimsdale, 0.8. E., president (the site having] already been cleared), is to begin at once. This hostel is being erected by the Ladies’ Guild of the British and Foreign Sailors’ Society in memory of the merchant seamen who fell in the war, and will help to meet the great need for suitable sleeping accommodation which is experienced in the great port of London. It was hoped to he able to provide accommodation for 500 men, hut it has not been possible to do this with the funds available. Provision is made for 240 cubicles which can be added to when financial conditions permit.

A very quiet wedding- was celebrated at St. John’s Cathedral, Napier, by Archdeacon Sim kin, when Chris. Curtis Bee, youngest eon of the late Mr George Bee, of Kote Maori, was married to Mary Christian Stainton, late of the Napier hospital staff, and only daughter of Mr W. Stainton, of Te Tai, Rawhiti, and grand-daughter of the late Wi Houkamnu, of Hick’s Bay, Gisborne. Tire bride was given away by her father, and was supported by the Misses Molly aifd Nancy Wilson, daughters of Mr and Mrs Leslie Wilson, of Tanga Tiipara, Waipukurau. The bride wore a frock of maize-colour-ed Jersey silk, and bat of same shade relieved with aaxe blue. The bridesmaids wore frocks of organdie, Mary bine, and shrimp pink respectively, and mob caps to match. ,Mr John Stainton acted as best man. A reception was held after the ceremony.

Mrs K. Lander, of the Women’s Service Guilds of Western Australia, mentioned, in conversation with a representative of the “Star,” that Miss Dungay has organised the women, and formed a Women’s Exchange, where the products manufactured by women are for sale. The workers fix their own prices for needlework, subject to a percentage, which pay* for the running expenses. The Women’s Exchange sells needlework, such ns knitted garments, which were formerly taken by the makers to the shops and sold at a quarter of the price they were afterwards retailed to the publio; basket work, home-made cakes and sweets, garden produce, eggs, and anything that they to sell. .In connection with the Exchange the women run a tea room, where homemade cakes are sold, as well as homemade sweets, both for consumption on the premises and for removal. The movement has been of great assistance to women, and is growing into a large and useful institution. The number of Indian graduates increases every year. In Calcutta a young Muslim lady, Sakina Farrikh Sultan Muyayidzada, has passed the B.A. examination this year with firstclass honors. In Madras there were over 1400 men graduates in the Hall and they rose to their feet tt» a man to cheer the forty women who had secured their degree. MILSOM AND CO., Oldest Established HAIR AND FACE SPECIALISTS. Every description of Hainvork. Reliable, and guaranteed by the most experienced experts. All modern Hair treatments qnd Staining, Henna and Inecto. Boys' and girls’ Hair-clippings from Is. Milsomo celebrated Face Creams still to the fore. None genuine without our trade mark.—MILSOSFS, 84, Willis street. 'Phone 814.—Advt. FACES RE-MOULDED.

Air and Airs Taldwyn have taken Air D. Peacock’s house, in Kelburn, while Mr and Airs Peacock are away in England. Miss K. Buckhurst, has returned to Christchurch from Wellington, where she lias been staying with Mrs Will Lawson. Airs Wright (Wellington) is the guest, of Airs F. A. Raymond (Beverley road), Timaru. Airs Norman James, of Alasterton, has a li o uso at Day’s Bay- just now, and is staying there with her family. Airs F. W. Kummer, Aliss Frieda Kummer, and Airs Robert Cameron, nf Alasterton, are spending a'few days in Wellington Mr and Mrs Hodder, of Palmerston North, are visitors to Wellington. Airs J. A. Smith, of Alasterton, is staying at Oriental Bay. Captain and Airs Ford, of Featherston, have been staying at Plimmerton, accompanied by the Rev. .J. G. Abbott and Mrs Abbott, of Shannon. Mrs Burns, of Wellington, is staying with Airs W. H. Jackson, at Alas- ' terton. American feminists feel proud of the fact that a woman is the highest salaried motion-picture writer in the country. She is Airs Clara Beranger, who adapted for the screen such wellknown pictures as “Dr. Jekyll and Air Hyde” and “Aliss Lulu Bett.” Airs Beraiiger’s work is artistic to the highest degree and she ia described os a woman of charming personality. President Harding lias signed the Cable Bill which provides for the independent citizenship of married American women and stipulates that the marriage of an alien woman to an American citizen shall not confer citizenship upon her, but shall request her to become naturalised on her own account. This has brought satisfaction to the women of the country, who have long felt that women who axe married should be treated as individuals and not as adjuncts to their husbands, Aliens married to aliens at the time of the passage of the law (September 22nd, 1922) are not affected by- it, but may become naturalised by complying with all the old law 'requirements, linjcluding five years continuous residence in ihs. United States, presentation of certificate of entry, ability to speak the English language and sign their names in their own handwriting, and single aliens may continue as in the past to file declarations and petitions for naturalisation. But no woman citizen of the United States shall cease to be a citizen by reason of her marriage unless she makes a formal renunciation of her citizenship before a court having jurisdiction over the naturalisation of aliens, or unless she marries an alien ineligible to citizenship. Both alien and American women may become naturalised without filing a declaration of intention, and after only one year’s continuous residence in the United States or its dependencies. |j PLUbIKET SOCIETY

The first meeting of the Royal New Zealand Society- for the Health of Women and Children for this year was held in the Plunket rooms on Thursday. Airs Hosking (president) was in the chair, and there were present: Mesdames J. Ivirkcaldie, W. Luke, AloLcan, AleVioax, Tynthe-t Brown, Ward, Alisses Barnett and Cable. The nurses’ report for the past two months gave the following figures:—Number of new cases, total 172, headquarters 165, Eastbourne 3, Ngaio, Khandallah, Johnsonville 4. Nuniber of cstsois visited in hpmes and visits uP officers (total) adults 2378, halbies 1(905; headquarters, adults 1679, babies 1080; Eastbourne, adults 68, babies 84; Ngaio, adults 27, babies 30;-Khandallah, adults 32, babies 46; Johnsonville, adults 29, babies 311 Seatoun, adults 66, babies 84; Lyall Bay,-adults 142, babies 175; "Melrose, adults 14, babies 15; Hataitai, adults 111, babies 122: Island Bay-, adults 83, babiles 83; Brooklyn, adults 89, 1 babies 89 ; Kelburn, adults 92, babies 109; Karori, adults 38, ba-bies-51; Wadestown, adults 8, babies 8. Number of babies solely breastfed 135, partially 12, artificially 25, expectant mothers 20, letters received 18, answered 6. The nurses’ report shows steady increase in the numbers of mothers and babies visiting the offices. A vote of condolence to Airs AlcVicar in her recent bereavement B-as passed.

The alterations of the new home in Kent Terrace are nearing completion, and the society hopes to be in residence there on the commencement of next, month. The treasurer acknowledges with thanks the following donations and subscriptions: Colonel Campbell, Mrs McEwen, £2 2s each ; Mr Aforgan £2, Mrs Morgan £1 10s. Mesdames Joseph and Righton £1 Is each; Nathan, Cousens and Mclnnes 10s each ; Mrs Morgan 7s 9d, Mesdames Thompson, Ward, Gray, Angell, 5s eaoh; a visitor 3s, Airs Lipscombe 2s 6d. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE The secretary of a northern branch of the Simplified Spelling Society has issued a challenge. He dares me (or anyone else) to read in public without previous preparation the 6th verse of the 11th chapter of Joshua, which contains the words: “Thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire” (says a correspondent in an English exchange). Personally, I had a very good training in these matters. At the tender age of 12 or so, while staying with a great-maiden-aunt, I was suddenly called upon to read to her assembled household at family prayers: “And the third a chalcedony . . . . and the seventh a chrysolyte .... and the tenth a chrysoprasus.’’ So I think that, if suddenly confronted with Joshua, I should plump for “Thou shalt hock their horses.’’ I don’t know how tho Alost High and Alighty Prince James I. pronounced it, but, if “hock” is right, it adds yet another possiblo pronunciation of “ough,” the foreigner’s bugbear, to those already collected in the tale of the ploughman, who strode coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully enough through the streets of Scarborough. That gives us ow, off, up, aw, lift, 00, or —and now oek. You can’t wonder that the Frenchman was troubled with a. cow on his chest.

PIERCING THE EARS It is easier in 1922, to have one’s appendix removed than one’s ears pierced. This despite the fact that never, since early Victorian daj's, has there been such a rage for earrings. For months the authoritative French fashion periodicals have shown their designs for day and evening gowns completed by earrings that have grown in size and bizarrerie with the months. Vet it is only after infinite trouble that one can have performed the little operation that alone ensures the safety of valuable je welled earrings. In Grandmother’s day it was not so. She chose a pair of “sleeper” rings at any jeweller’s, and without extra charge the “boring”—as it wa6 then called —was done in the shop. Ten minutes saw the whole thing over. Many jewellers invented tiny Instruments to facilitate the process and make it Je6s painful. One man pierced ears with a needle, widening at the end into a hollow tube. Into this tube the end of the ring was placed and drawn through without any of the fumbling that is necessitated when the needle is withdrawn before the ring is inserted. Another invented a tiny pistol which, when the trigger was released, shot aB-ay a morsel of flesh, leaving a perfectly clear passage for the ring. A momentary pain was experienced, but this was laughable to -the women who bore stair-steppy families of nine or ten children in a pre-chloroform era. Just recently I fell heiress to a collection of beautiful antique earrings which had a monetary as well as a sentimental value, so, little thinking of the quest before me, I set out to have my ears pierced. A Belgian friend had told me that foreign jeweleds pierce the lobe with the sharply pointed end of a ring, -which is then clipped into the hollow at the other end, ’ the whole operation taking a moment, and costing merely the price of the self-locking rings— ?5 centimes silver, 1.95 francs gold. This, of course, was pre-war.

In Soho, hoping for similar treatment even at an increased cost, I tried six foreign jewellers, who put me off with varying excuses. “My man is away.” . . . “We do not keep those rings since the war.” . . . “Ze young lady u’iio pierce ze ears—she ’av ]ef’ usl” . . Still unspicious, I asked a local watchmaker, one c f yi e old school, whose window displays dozens of earrings. Alas! . . “Since my sight failed last year, madam, I dare not do it any longer, though I’ve pierced hundreds since I was a lad.” However, he recommended me to a mammoth store, in the jewellery section of which he knew a man competent to do what I wished. From him I learned the true reason why jewellers no longer pierce ears. Some ten years ago a liiuijy developed a septic ear, and sued the jeweller for lieavy damages. Since this case, all jewellers are forbidden by their association to perform the operation. With polite regrets the assistant advised me to approach -a doctor.

“Any doctor will do it for you for a Visiting fee,” he said, blandly. Fearing the gibes of my family doctor, the next day found me consulting a strange physician, half expecting an amused refusal of my request. On. the contrary, ho inquired if I could “rest after the operation,” and suggested obtaining “really good” rings for me from a Bond street jeweller. 1 was amazed at such thoughtfulness, hut when he informed me that his services were retained bv that firm and that his “fee for the operation would be two guineas,” I left precipitately. My own dear old “medicine man” pierced them for 7s 6d.—Ernestine Alanton, in the ’‘AVestminster Gazette.” THE RAGE FOR DOLLS There was never such a rage for dolls ai now. Dressed exquisitely in the fashion of different periods, and set as ornaments on a dinner-table, or an odd table in a drawing-room, they are seen here, there, and everywhere (says an English paper). In Paris pierrot doils are the favourite mascot at all the dances. Dolls are used wide-skirted as shields for telephones, or powder-puffs; . narrow skirted and trim, they top handbags and scent bottles. Since prehistoric times little girls have loved their dolls, and it was only the other day, in an excavation near the city of Anfinoe, in Egypt, that a rag doll with a woolly head and movable arms was unearthed.

In Syria little girls had mechanical dolls which, if pulled by a string, moved their arms and legs like jumping jacks. In Australia the natives made dolls of wax, and so even did Red Indians and the Eskimos. The inventive mind of the ancient Greeks evolved little figures of wax and clay which were brightly and beautifully coloured, had movable limbs, and clothes to put on and take off. The Greeks, when they dreeßed their dolls, made them to represent gods and heroes. What is known now of dolls of ages ago has been gained by the ethnologists, who found these playthings in the tombs. Girls of olden times married very early, and they only played with their dolls until their bridal morning. If a girl died before her wedding, then her dolfe were buried with her. Throughout history dolls have nearly always taken baby-form, ■ and even now, if a little girl chooses a. doll for herself, she asks nine times out of ten for the one in long clothes. In shops and stores this Christmas there was a rush ’ for dolls, big and small, pretty and quaint, such as has not been known since before the war.

The death recently occurred of MarfiU’et, tho nine-year-old daughter of Ir and Mrs J. Desmond, which took place at her parents’ residence, Johnston street, Foxton. The little girl had been ill for several months and up to a few weeks ago was a patient In the Palmerston North hospital. Upon her return she seemed to brighten up for a time, but quietly passed away as above stated. The cause of death was due to an affection of tho kidneys and heart.

WANGANUI NOTES (By Eileen.) Mrs I.egge, of Gonyille, returned home this week from a\ holiday spent with relations in Auckland. Mrs East, of Miramar, has been visiting relations in Wanganui ; she returned' home this week. Mrs Tucker, of Gonville, has been holidaying at Nelson. Sire returned home on Wednesday. Mr and Mrs H. Price, of Wanganui, have spent about three weeks in Nelson. They returned home this week. Miss Morton Jones, who has lately returned from an extended world tour, has taken a furnished house at our seaside resort. Miss Piency, who has been spending the school vacation at Paekakariki, returned to town on Tuesday. Mrs T. E. Thomas, of Wanganui, with her youngest son and two little daughters, have been on a short holiday to the Mountain House. Young Thomas is one of the party who went up the mountain with the Rev. William Murray. The latter has been lost on the mountain. The question as to whom our foreshore and wharf belongs is* at present being fought out here. Mr A. I>. Thomson is the Commissioner taking evidence on both sides. A question also of great importance to sports oi football and racing is involved, as one part of the citizens want to give away our children's birthright (the Recreation Grounds and the racecourse). A monster petition was circulated a couple of years ago, and widely signed, strongly protesting against the racecourse being handed to the department for a railway station.

At a meeting of the Borough Council held on Tuesday evening, Mr J. C. Richardson (deputy-Mayor) was elected as chairman of the Central WaT Memorial Committee.

A meeting of the Central War Memorial Committee was held on Wednesday evening, Hr J: C. Richardson in the chair. It was reported that the contractors were pushing on with the memorial, and it is hoped to have it well enough on to be unveiled on Anzao Day. A ceremonial committee was appointed, those being:—Mrs Comyns, Messrs Richardson, Gohus, Aitken, Ash well, and Clark (secretary). Mesdames Comyns, Brookie, and Carlysle, and Messrs Knucky, Ashwell, and Warden are the finance committee. Very satisfactory arrangements are in hand for the Alexandra Band Fair, to be held on the 17th of this month, in Draffins’ big garage. This band has always willingly given their services to help any deserving case, and for various organisations. Among the sideshows will be a mock court, and it is hoped to arrange for some pretty fancy dancing. Mr and Mrs Farquhar Young, of Christchurch, are at present in town. Mrs Higginbothom, of Wanganui, is visiting friends in Christchurch.